








W 
^q^ 



A SHORT HISTORY 



OF THE 



AMERICAN TMT1 A§ PACING HORSE. 



WITH 



TABLES OF PEDIGREES OF FAMOUS HORSES, USEFUL HINTS, 
SUGGESTIONS AND OPINIONS ON TRAINING AND 
CONDITIONING COMPILED FROM VARI- 
OUS SOURCES, RULES FOR 
TRACK LAYING, Etc., 



by 



HENEY T. COATES. 



WHAT TO DO BEFORE THE VETERINARY 
SURGEON COMES, 

By GEORGE FLEMING, F.R. C. V. S. 



THE JOHN C. WINSTON CO., 

PHILADELPHIA, 
CHICAGO, TORONTO. 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Oociec Received 

APR 26 1906 

Copyright Entry 
CLASS C** XXc, No, 

/ 3 / <f f </ 

COPY B. 



^ 



%* 



M 



I 



COPYRIGHT, 

HENRY T. COATES & CO. 
1901. 

COPYRIGHT, 1905. 

THE JOHN C. WINSTON CO. 



PREFACE. 



This little work has been a labor of love, and has been written 
from that cause alone. The writer has no experience to relate; 
has had but little time to spare to see races, or even to drive the 
pets he has raised. Therefore, having none of his own, he has 
drawn largely from the experience of others, and consequently lays 
claim to no merit or originality. If it be charged that too much 
attention has been given to the favorites of other days and the 
early years of the Trotting Turf, he can only plead the architect's 
excuse, that, after all, the foundations of a house are the most im- 
portant; and, moreover, Hiram Woodruff's fascinating book has 
exerted an influence which the later writings of Splan, Marvin, 
Feek and G-eers, able horsemen as they are, have never been able to 
dispel. Loving a horse for himself alone, and not rating him as a 
mere racing machine, to be cast aside when no longer a money- 
getter, the writer has made just such a book as he would give to 
any one handling his own horses ; and in the hope that others may 
be led to love this noblest of animals as he does, this little book 
is sent out into the world of letters. 

Henry T. Coates. 



CONTENTS 



PAGES. 

A Short History of the American Trotting and Pacing Horse, ... 9 

Some Useful Hints, Suggestions and Opinions on Training and Con- 
ditioning, Compiled from Various Sources, 83 

Rules for Track Laying, 93 

What to Do before the Veterinary Surgeon Comes, 95 

Tables of Pedigrees of Famous Horses, .117 

A Moral for Horsemen, 147 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 

{From Photographs by the Author.) 



Goldsmith Maid, in her twenty-sixth year, Frontispiece. 

Dexter, in his twenty-fifth year, 32 

France's Alexander, 52 

Trinket, 58 

Harry Wilkes, 60 

Saladin (from a photograph by Schreiber & Son), 66 



A SHORT HISTORY 



AMERICAN TROTTING HORSE. 



America naturally inherits that love for the horse and rural 
life which distinguishes the mother country ; but with us the 
trotter holds the first place in the popular estimation, while the 
running turf is patronized mainly by the wealthiest portion of the 
community. Indeed, we may justly claim the trotting horse as an 
American production ) for though this gait is natural to the horse, 
and trotting matches have occasionally taken place in England and 
France, and though in Russia the efforts of the famous Count Orloff 
have resulted in establishing a breed of trotting horses which have 
fine action and some speed, it is only in this country that the trot- 
ting gait has been brought to perfection. 

The advocates of the Darwinian theory can reasonably point to 
the trotting horse as an illustration of the doctrine of evolution ; 
for though he is not a distinct breed or strain of horses, or de- 
scended from any one family, he is certainly a wonderful instance 
of what may be done by cultivating certain gaits or peculiarities, and 
by a careful selection of only the best animals for breeding purposes. 
His very existence in this country hardly dates back of the present 
century, as in the early periods of our history all the imported 
horses were used exclusively for running purposes, and theante- 
revolutionary races were all of that character. At first, as in all 
new countries, the roads were very rough and stony — poor at all 
times, and in bad weather utterly impassable for light carriages ; 
the distances between settlements were often long and the roads 
lonesome, and the saddle horse was the only medium of communi- 
cation, excepting when the heavy, lumbering stages jolted slowly 
along the few turnpike roads running between the largest towns. 
The old weather-beaten stone steps still remaining at the gateway 
of many old-fashioned country houses, although now unused and 
mossy, testify to the equestrian habits of the colonial era, when the 
saddle horse was used by both sexes. 

9 



10 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

When, in May, 1788, the gray horse Messenger dashed down the 
gangway of a ship from England, lying at the foot of Market street 
wharf, in Philadelphia, the history of the American trotting horse 
began. Messenger was a thoroughbred English horse, foaled in 
1780, and was imported, as were many other English thorough- 
breds, on account of his value as a running horse, and for the 
improvement of thoroughbreds in this country. Like Maecenas 
of classic renown he was " descended from regal ancestors," for 
being by Mambrino, the son of Engineer, he could trace his pedigree 
through the famous Flying Childers directly back to the Darley 
Arabian, and on his dam's side he could boast of Match em, Regulus, 
Cade, and the Godolphin Arabian. He had run in England with 
moderate success, winning eight out of the thirteen races for which 
he started. 

He was a handsome gray, 15 f hands high, with " a large bony 
head, rather short, straight neck, with windpipe and nostrils nearly 
twice as large as ordinary; low withers, shoulders somewhat up- 
right, but deep and strong ; powerful loin and quarters ', hocks and 
knees unusually large, and below them limbs of medium size, but 
flat and clean, and, whether at rest or in motion, always in a per- 
fect position." 

A groom who saw him taken off the ship was accustomed to 
relate that " the three other horses that accompanied him on a long 
voyage had become so reduced and weak that they had to be 
helped and supported down the gangplank ; but when it came to 
Messenger's turn to land, he, with a loud neigh, charged down, 
with a negro on each side holding him back, and dashed off up the 
street on a stiff trot, carrying the negroes along, in spite of all their 
efforts to bring him to a stand-still." 

The first two seasons after his arrival he was kept at Neshaminy 
Bridge, near Bristol, in Bucks county, Pa. Mr. Henry Astor then 
purchased him, and took him to Long Island. Two years later 
Mr. C. W. Van Ranst purchased an interest in him, and for the 
remainder of his life he was kept in various parts of the State of 
New York, with the exception of one year at Cooper's Point, New 
Jersey, opposite Philadelphia. He died of colic, at Oyster Bay, 
Long Island, January 28th, 1808, and such was the estimation in 
winch, he was held, that at his funeral military honors were paid, 
and a volley of musketry was fired over his grave. His immediate 
descendants were trained for the running turf, and Potomac, Fair 
Rachel, Sir Solomon, Sir Harry, Bright Phoebus, Miller's Damsel 
(dam of American Eclipse), and Hambletonian were among the 
fastest horses of their day. Had it not been that a few years after 
his arrival the Pennsylvania Legislature passed a law prohibiting 
racing, thus compelling those owning fine horses to keep them for 



AMERICAN TROTTING HORSE. 11 

road purposes, in all probability his progeny would have been 
trained to gallop instead of trot. 

About this time, the country roads growing better and road 
wagons being made lighter, trotting came into fashion, and the 
wonderful trotting speed of this family was discovered. He 
"builded better than he knew" who brought the grand old 
gray into this country, and it is estimated that his importation 
has added at least one hundred millions of dollars to the wealth 
of the country. A very large proportion of the horses now on 
the trotting turf contain the blood of old Messenger in their 
veins, and the celebrated Hambletonian, the most fashionable 
stallion of recent times, boasted of four separate strains of this blood. 
Other stallions have had an influence in producing the trotting 
horse. The mixture of the blood of imported Diomed, the winner 
of the first Derby, with that of Messenger, produced the wonderful 
Dexter, while the names of Trustee, Duroc, American Eclipse and 
Sir Henry are to be found in many of the pedigrees of the flyers now 
on the turf. In 1822, the Norfolk trotter Bellfounder, who had 
trotted two miles in 6 m., and nine in less than half an hour, and 
was said to have challenged all England to trot seventeen and a half 
miles within the hour, was imported, and if persistent advertising 
could have made him a success, he would have been the greatest 
of all importations. He lived to be twenty-nine years old, but, with 
the exception of siring the dam of Rysdyk's Hambletonian, did 
little to fulfill expectations. The Canadians, old pacer Pilot, Sur- 
rey, St. Lawrence and Royal G-eorge, and the Arabians, Grand 
Bashaw and Zilcaadi, have also had their influence; but all 
combined might not have succeeded in producing the American 
trotting horse had not Messenger the great been imported. 

The records of the rise of the trotting turf in this country are 
few and meagre ; the earliest notices of any trotting matches being 
found in the American Farmer, edited by the Hon. John S. 
Skinner, published in 1819. 

The first sporting paper published in America was a monthly 
magazine, called the American Turf Register, also edited by Mr. 
Skinner, published in Baltimore, September 1, 1829. This journal 
was almost entirely devoted to the thoroughbred running horse and 
racing ; and, during the first two or three years of its existence, 
trotting was scarcely mentioned in its pages. 

Porter's Spirit of the Times, of December 20, 1856, states: 
" The first time ever a horse trotted in public for a stake was in 
1818, and that was a match against time for $1000. The match 
was proposed at a jockey club dinner, where trotting had come 
under discussion, and the bet was that no horse could be produced 
that could trot a mile in 3 minutes. It was accepted by Major 



12 



A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



Wm. Jones, of Long Island, and Col. Bond, of Maryland, but 
the odds on time were immense. The horse named at the post 
was Boston Blue, who won cleverly, and gained great renown. He 
subsequently was purchased by Thomas Cooper, the tragedian, who 
drove him on several occasions between New York and Philadel- 
phia, thereby enabling him to perform his engagements in either 
city on alternate nights. " Boston Blue was taken to England, 
where he trotted 8 miles in 28 m. 55 s., winning a hundred sover- 
eigns. He also trotted several shorter races, making about 3 m. 
time. He was a rat-tailed, iron-gray gelding, 16 hands high, and 
nothing was known of his pedigree. 

Boston Blue was followed later by a rough- coated little Indian 
pony, named Tom Thumb, who on a cold day in February, 1829, 
trotted one hundred miles over Sunbury Common in 10 h. 7 m., 
and in the following September, driven by his new owner, the re- 
doubtable Squire Osbaldestone, he trotted sixteen and a half miles 
in 56| m. 

In 1825 the New York Trotting Club was organized, and in 
1828 the Hunting Park Association was established in Philadel- 
phia — "for the encouragement of the breed of fine horses, espe- 
cially that most valuable one known as the trotter " — and a corre- 
spondent of the English Sporting Magazine, writing of the trot- 
ting horses at this course in 1829, mentions the following : 

" Topgallant, by Hambletonian, he by Messenger, trotted 12 
miles in harness in 38 minutes ; and 3 miles, under saddle, in 8 m. 
31 s. He is now nineteen years old, and can trot a mile with one 
hundred and fifty pounds in 2 m. 45 s. 

" Betsey Baker, by Mambrino, he by Messenger, beat Topgal- 
lant three miles, under saddle, carrying one hundred and fifty 
pounds, in 8 m. 16 s. This mare, when sound, could trot twenty 
miles within the hour. 

" Trouble, by Hambletonian, a horse of good bottom, trotted two 
miles in 5 m. 25 s. 

" Sir Peter, by Hambletonian, trotted three miles, in harness, in 
8 m. 16 s. 

" Whalebone, by Hambletonian, trotted three miles in 8 m. 18 s. 
These two, Sir Peter and Whalebone, can be matched either against 
Battler or Tom Thumb, now in England, for any amount. 

" Screwdriver, by Mount Holly, he by Messenger, in a race 
with Betsey Baker, trotted two three-mile heats in 8 m. 2 s., and 
8 m. 10 s." 

Indeed, so famous was Screwdriver, that when he died a Phila- 
delphia paper gave him the following first-class obituary: "The 
emperor of horses is no more. Screwdriver is dead. He died sud- 
denly on Sunday, October 19, 1828, in his training stable, at Phila- 



AMERICAN TROTTING HORSE. 



13 



delphia. This is the noble animal that trotted and won at Philadel- 
phia the silver cup and $300, on the 15th of May last, heating 
Betsey Baker and Topgallant. On the 7th inst. he won the 
$300 purse on Long Island, and was intended for the S300 purse 
to be trotted for on Tuesday, the 21st inst., at Philadelphia. He 
was considered the best trotter ever known in this or any other 
country, of a fine figure and excellent temper. He was the prop- 
erty of J. P. Brown, of this city." 

In those days most of the races were at long distances — two, 
three or four mile heats were the most frequent — and speed was 
not, as now, cultivated to the exclusion of that other and more 
useful qualification of the driving horse, endurance ; and upon that 
solid foundation, then and there laid, rests the beautiful superstruc- 
ture which we now admire. In 1829, when in his twenty-second 
year, in a four-mile race against Whalebone, over the Hunting Park 
Course, Topgallant, a grandson of Messenger, trotted four heats of 
four miles each in 11 m. 16 s., 11 m. 6 s., 11 m. 17 s., and 12 m. 
15 s., the whole sixteen miles being trotted in 45 m. 44 s. The 
second heat was declared " dead," and the third heat was won by 
Whalebone. Hiram Woodrufi", in his work on " The Trotting 
Horse of America," the acknowledged standard authority, says of 
old Topgallant : " He was the most remarkable instance of extra- 
ordinary trotting power and endurance, when at a great age, that 
ever came under my notice. * * * He was a dark bay horse, 15 
hands 3 inches high, plain and raw-boned, but with rather a fine 
head and neck, and an eye expressive of much courage. He was 
spavined in both hind legs, and his tail was slim at the root. His 
spirit was very high ; and yet he was so reliable that he would 
hardly ever break, and his bottom was of the finest and toughest 
quality. He was live-oak as well as hickory, for the best of his 
races were made after he was twenty years old/ 

Up to 1830 there had been but little interest taken in trotting, 
but now it was fast becoming thoroughly established as a popular 
pastime. Plank roads too were being laid out in all directions, and 
"two forty on a plank road" became the familiar slang term to 
denote anything fast, and applicable alike to the equine and human 
species. Old Topgallant, Whalebone and Sweetbriar were the 
public favorites, while Sally Miller, Chancellor, Columbus, Dred, 
Collector, and a host of new aspirants were fast edging their way 
to public favor. In 1833, Paul Pry, a gray gelding nine years old, 
was backed to trot 17! miles within the hour, over the Long 
Island Course, which he did with ease, trotting 18 miles and 36 
yards over in 58 m. 52 s. This race is especially noteworthy as 
being one of the first mounts of Hiram Woodruff, to whose patient 
care, wonderful insight into the nature of the horse, and unsur- 



14 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

passed skill in driving, the American trotting horse is greatly 
indebted for the proud position he now holds. 

In 1834, at Trenton, N. J., Edwin Forrest, who had been 
about a year on the turf, trotted a mile in 2 m. 36 s., and Columbus 
in 2 m. 37 s., and the Turf Register of March, 1834, copies from a 
Philadelphia paper the following comments on the race: "The 
improvement of the trotting horse is engaging the attention of 
some of the best sporting characters in the country. We believe 
our State boasts of the best trotters in the Union. New York is 
nearly as good as our own. It is, in our opinion, a sport which 
should be encouraged/' On May 9th, of the same year, Edwin 
Forrest beat Sally Miller, on Long Island, in the then unprece- 
dented time of 2 m. 31 J s., 2 m. 33 s., and soon after challenged any 
horse in the world to contend with him at four-mile heats, for any 
sum from $5000 to $10,000, without finding a taker. In 1836, 
appeared two horses whose names frequently appear in the annals of 
trotting, Awful, a tall, wiry, bloodlike looking bay, and Dutchman, 
whose time for three miles stood for thirty years at the head of the 
record, and has only once been beaten. Dutchman was a coarse 
brown horse, 15 hands 3 inches high, very powerful and of uncom- 
mon resolution and endurance. He had formerly worked in the 
lead of a team which carted bricks in Mr. Jeffries' brick yard at 
Philadelphia, and did his full share of the heavy work. He might 
have remained in obscurity all his life if an important election had 
not occurred, and Mr. Jeffries' regular carriage horse falling lame 
Dutchman was pressed into the service of carrying the free and 
independent voters to the polls. He performed so well, albeit the 
loads were heavy, that Mr. Jeffries concluded that he would make 
a trotter, and he left the brick yard forever. Transferred to the 
turf, he soon took his place at its head, which he held for seven 
years against such competitors as Awful, Rattler, Rifle, and the 
renowned Lady Suffolk. In 1836 he trotted four mile heats 
under the saddle, in 11 m. 19 s. and 10 m. 51s. ; the time of 
the second heat has only once been beaten. Plis three-mile race 
with Rattler over the Beacon Course, in 1838, shows the severity 
of the contests of those days, and an endurance of which we are 
afraid few of the flyers of to-day can boast. The first heat Rattler 
won by half a length in 7 m. 54 J s., the second Dutchman won 
in 7 m. 50 s., the third heat was dead in 8 m. 2 s., and the fourth 
Dutchman won in 8 m. 24 J s. Hiram Woodruff, who drove Dutch- 
man, says of this race : " Just such a race as this it has never been 
my fortune to see since, and nobody had seen such a one before. 
For eleven miles the horses were never clear of each other ; and, 
when Dutchman left Rattler in the twelfth, it was by inches only. 
Moreover, there were but two breaks in this race, and each horse 



AMERICAN TROTTING HORSE. 



15 



made but one in his twelve miles. That was trotting; and though 
both the horses afterwards acquired more speed, they never ex- 
hibited more obstinate game or more thorough bottom than in this 
race." Rattler was soon afterwards taken to England, and was by 
all odds the best trotter ever taken there. 

Dutchman's greatest performance took place over the Beacon 
Course, on the 1st of August, 1839. On the afternoon of that day 
he trotted, with Hiram Woodruff in the saddle, three miles in 7 m. 
32 s. His driver, Hiram Woodruff, says of this race : "lam posi- 
tive that, if he had been called on to do so, he could have trotted 
the three miles in 7 in. 27 s., or letter. This is no light opinion of 
mine, taken up years afterwards on inadequate grounds, and when 
those who might be opposed to it had gone from among us. It 
was the judgment of those who saw him in the feat, observed him 
all through, and noticed how he finished. * * * The truth is, 
that he was a most extraordinary horse. There have been many 
trotters that could go as fast for a little way ; but the beauty of 
Dutchman was, that he could go fast, and go all day." 

The last race but one which Dutchman ever trotted took place 
at the Beacon Course, in 1843, and is so graphically described by 
Hiram Woodruff in his " Trotting Horse of America," that we 
cannot resist the temptation to quote it entire. 

" In a week or ten days thereafter, we went three-mile heats in 
harness, over the Beacon Course, and it was a tremendous race of 
four heats. The first was won by Dutchman. The second was 
stoutly contested, but Americus won it. The third heat was very 
hotly contested, and resulted in a dead heat between the old horse 
and Americus. Lady Suffolk was now ruled out for not winning 
a heat in three, and the betting was heavy, Dutchman having the 
call. 

" The long summer day had drawn rapidly to a close. At 
the same time the heavens were overcast; and with fading gleams 
of dim, yellow light, the sun sank into great banks of clouds. 
They mounted higher and higher, and seemed to lie like a load 
upon the weary earth. The heat was intense ; and not a breath of 
air was stirring to break the ominous repose. With the last flicker 
of day, the swift scud began to fly overhead, and the solid-seeming 
clouds to tower up and come on like moving mountains. It was 
dark when we got into our sulkies ; and, soon after the start, the 
storm burst upon us with a fury that I have never since seen^ 
equalled. The wind blew a hurricane, and the pelting rain fell in ' 
torrents, as though the sluices of the skies had opened all at once. 
Nothing could have overpowered the mighty rush of the wind and 
the furious splash of the rain but the dread, tremendous rattle of 
the thunder. It seemed to be discharged right over our heads, 



16 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

and only a few yards above us. Nothing could have penetrated 
the thick, profound gloom of that darkness but the painful blue 
bl«ze of the forked lightning. I could not see, in the short inter- 
vals between the flashes, the faintest trace of the horse before me ; 
and then, in the twinkling of an eye, as though the darkness"Was 
torn away like a veil by the hand of the Almighty, the whole 
course, the surrounding country, to the minutest and most distant 
thing, would be revealed. The spires of the churches and houses 
of .Newark, eight miles off, we could see more plainly than in broad 
daylight; and we noticed, that, as the horses faced the howling 
elements, their ears lay back flat upon their necks. Between these 
flashes of piercing, all-pervading light and the succeeding claps of 
thunder, the suspense and strain upon the mind was terrible. We 
knew that it was coming so as to shake the very pillars of the earth, 
but we rode on j and, until it had rattled over our heads, we were 
silent. Then, in the blank darkness, as we went on side by side, 
we would exchange cautions. Neither could see the other, nor 
hear the wheels nor the stride of the horses, by reason of the wind 
and rain. 

" ' Look out, Hiram/ Spicer would say, ' or we shall be into 
each other/ 

"A few strides farther. on, and I would sing out, 'Take care, 
George ; you must be close to me/ 

" Now, the noise of the wheels and the tramp of the horses could 
not be heard in the roar of the wind and the patter of the rain, 
and yet our voices could be and were. For a mile and a half, in 
the very centre, as it were, of this Titanic war of the skyey 
elements, we went side by side. Then Dutchman lost ground. 
The track was clayey, and he, having on flat shoes, began to slip 
and slide at every stride. Americus gradually drew away from 
him ; and, when I reached the stand at the end of the second mile, 
I stopped. I have seen a great many summer storms in my time, 
and have been out in not a few of them, but, of all that I remember, 
none quite equalled, in terrific fury and awful grandeur, that which 
burst over the Beacon Course just as we began that heat. Spicer 
says the same." 

After being beaten three-mile heats by the pacer Oneida Chief 
and Lady Suffolk, at Baltimore, Dutchman was withdrawn from 
the turf, and died in 1847, full of years and honors. 

Bipton was a very handsome bay horse, about fifteen hands high, 
with four white legs and a blaze in the face, high strung and 
possessing unusual spirit and determination. Like Dutchman his 
pedigree was unknown, but like him also his performances prove 
that there must have been good blood in his veins. He was Hiram 
Woodruff's pride, and in his hands often contended with Lady 



AMERICAN TROTTING HORSE. 17 

Suffolk, Americus, Don Juan and Washington, and generally came 
off victorious. On May 31, 1842, on the Hunting Park Course, 
two-mile heats, he defeated Lady Suffolk in the quick time of 5m. 
7s. , 5m. 15s., 5m. 17s. Suffolk won the second heat, and Ripton 
was first in the last heat by six inches only. 

On October 20, 1848, Trustee, a son of imported Trustee, out 
of Fanny Pullen, a celebrated trotting mare, in a match against 
time over the Union Course, Long Island, trotted twenty miles in 
59 m. 35 J s. without breaking once, coming in on the last mile 
apparently as fresh as when he started, and trotting the last mile 
in 2 m. 51 J s., the fastest of the race. This has since been sur- 
passed by Controller, Captain McGowan and John Stewart ; but 
Trustee's performance was many years in advance of the others, 
and was undoubtedly a great one. 

But the brightest star of the trotting firmament, and the great 
favorite of the sporting fraternity at this time, was the old gray 
mare Lady Suffolk. She was foaled in 1833, and was by En- 
gineer 2d, a grandson of Messenger, and was closely inbred to the 
gray on her dam's side. She was a gray, about fifteen hands one 
inch high, with a bloodlike head, deep in the chest and long in the 
body, good muscular shoulders and legs of iron. Her career at 
first was not successful, and gave but little promise of her after 
brilliancy. The Lady's first public appearance was on a very cold 
day in February, 1838, at Babylon, N. Y., where she trotted for a 
purse of eleven dollars, and won it after three heats, the fastest of 
which was in three minutes. In her next race, June 20th, at the 
Beacon Course, she was beaten in poor time ; but two days after- 
wards, at the same place, she won a trot of two-mile heats, under 
the saddle, beating Lady Victory, a horse of some local fame, in 
5 m. 15 s. and 5 m. 17 s. She was then beaten by Rattler, 
Awful, and Napoleon, all of them races of two-mile heats; and 
October 17th, she beat Polly Smallfry and Madame Royal, two- 
mile heats, in 5 m. 18 s. and 5 m. 26 s. Rattler then beat her 
three-mile heats, and the famous Dutchman beat her two races, 
two-mile and mile heats respectively. In 1839 she trotted twelve 
races, eight of which were two-mile heats, and one of four-mile 
heats, winning six and losing six. In 1840 she first lost two races 
of two-miles heats and three-miles heats respectively to the mighty 
Dutchman, and then in less than a week after these two severe 
races, she beat Celeste and Napoleon, at the Centreville Course, 
two-mile heats. June 30th, she beat Bonaparte easily, at the Cen- 
treville, four-mile heats, in 11 m. 15 s. and 11 m. 58 s. She then 
lay by until September 21st, when she beat Aaron Burr, two-mile 
heats, at the Beacon Course, and three days later she added to her 
growing fame by beating Dutchman, two-mile heats, under saddle, 
2 



18 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

at the Beacon Course, in 4 m. 59 s. and 5 m. 3£ s. Owing to an 
accident, she did no more work that year. She opened the season 
of 1841 by beating Confidence and Washington, two-mile heats, at 
the Centreville Course, but the former a few days later turned the 
tables upon her. At Philadelphia, May 6th, she beat Dutchman, 
two-mile heats, in harness, in 5 m. 12? s , 5 m. 19J s., and 5 m. 
21 s., and two days afterwards beat him, three-mile heats, under 
saddle, in 7 m. 401 s. and 7 m. 56 s. Aaron Burr then beat her 
three-mile heats at the Beacon Course, June 13th. On July 5th, at 
the Beacon, she beat Ripton, under saddle, mile heats, in 2 m. 35 s. 
and 2 m. 27 i s., and on the 22d of the same month, at the same 
course, she beat Awful, two- mile heats, in harness, in three heats, 
in 5 m. 26J s., 5 m. 28 s., and 5 m. 21 s. Five days after, at the 
same course, she distanced Oneida Chief, the pacer, two-mile heats, 
under saddle, in 5 m. 5 s., with very great ease. She finished her 
work this year by suffering defeat from Americus in a five-mile race 
to wagon. The next two years she was generally unsuccessful, 
which was attributed universally to the obstinacy and incompetency 
of her owner and driver, David Bryant. 

In 1844 the Lady was very successful, beating Americus, Ripton, 
Washington, Columbus, Duchess, Pizarro, and losing but two races. 
In 1845, she won four races, three from Americus and one from 
Moscow, and lost four times : twice to Americus, once to Duchess, 
and once to Moscow. In 1846 she only won two out of her five 
races, but in 1847, when she was in her fourteenth year, she bore 
away the palm from all her competitors, winning nine times, and 
against such horses as Moscow, Lady Sutton, Ripton, and the 
pacers, James K. Polk and Roanoke, and lost but once. These 
performances were at three, two, and one-mile heats, under saddle, 
in harness, and to sulkies, doing three miles in 7 m. 56 s. and 
8 m. 6J s., two miles in 5 m. 3 s., 5 m. 10 s., and 5 m. 12 s., one 
mile in 2 m. 33? s. In 1848 she trotted only six races, having 
met with an accident in the middle of the season, when she was 
winning races hoof over hoof; but, in 1849, she came out fresh and 
fine after her accident, and trotted nineteen races, and came out con- 
queror in twelve of them, beating Gray Eagle, Mac, and Lady Sutton 
each twice; Pelham, five times; Trustee, the famous twenty-miler, 
four times ; Long Island Black Hawk, Gray Trouble, Ploughboy, 
and others. In her race with Mac and Gray Trouble, at Boston, 
June 14th, to saddle, she won the second heat in 2 m. 26 s., which 
for a short time was at the head of the record. In 1850 she beat 
Lady Moscow six times, at one, two, and three miles ; Jack Rossiter, 
thrice ; Hector, once ; and in harness, once her old adversary, James 
K. Polk, to wagon. She was beaten four times by Lady Moscow, 
at two and three miles, and twice, at two miles, by Jack Rossiter, 



AMERICAN TROTTING HORSE. 19 

coming off victorious from both in each match of three events. In 
1851 she was only moderately successful. In 1852 she trotted 
twelve races, and won but once, and in 1853 she appeared twice, 
but was defeated in both races. She died at Bridgeport, Vt, 
on March 7th, 1855. Trotting indiscriminately races of five, 
four, three, two and one-mile heats, in season and out of season, 
wretchedly managed and driven, no distance seemed too long for 
her, nor any exertion too great. An honester, gamer, tougher 
beast never trod the- earth ; nothing ever daunted her noble spirit; 
she never flinched or sulked, and would come up at the judge's 
signal for the last heat with the same determination to do or die as 
at the first, and had she been more judiciously handled, would have 
won far more victories than stand to her credit. She was six- 
teen years on the turf, and trotted in one hundred and sixty-one 
races, winning eighty-eight, and winning for her owner in purses 
alone $35,000, at a time when large purses were the exception. 

The secret of Lady Suffolk's career was love. Hard driver though 
he was, David Bryan, her owner, trainer, driver and intimate friend, 
loved his faithful mare, and his cheery greeting in the stable of 
" Well, Dolly," fell as sweetly on her ears as ever song of trouba- 
dour on love-sick maiden's. She was his devoted slave, and though 
after his death in 1851 she received the best care and attention, 
she ever missed 

" The touch of a vanished hand 
And the sound of the voice that is still," 

and in the few remaining years in which she survived her old 
master was but a shadow of her former self. 

Next to Dutchman, James K. Polk, the pacer, was, perhaps, the 
best horse she ever met. He was a big, handsome, blood-like, 
chestnut gelding, with a long, sweeping tail, and of so commanding 
appearance that he completely filled the scene, so that it was next 
to impossible to look at any of the other horses in the race. He 
was a hard puller, and a tremendous horse in long-distance races. He 
beat Lady Suffolk twice in three-mile-heat races and twice in two- 
mile races, and once at mile heats. 

If James K. Polk could boast of a fine, long tail, another atten- 
dant at the court of the old grey queen could not. After the fool- 
ish, if not sinful fashion of those days — which, alas ! is coming 
in vogue again — Grey Eagle was docked. He was by Harris' 
Hambletonian, and had a record of two minutes thirty-five seconds. 
Despite his docked tail, Hiram Woodruff, who owned and drove 
him, says, " He was one of the most beautiful little horses ever seen. 
He was well broken, and a splendid driver, looking magnificent 
when going, and, next to Ripton, the best horse for snow I have 
ever known. It made but little difference whether the sleighing 



20 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

was good or indifferent, for he would go through icy water and 
slush as if he liked it ; but it made a great difference to the driver." 

Another cf the grey mare's contemporaries was Jack Rossiter, a 
gay, little bay gelding of unknown lineage, who, a short time back, 
in Milwaukee — celebrated for its cream-colored brick and foamy 
beer — was employed in the ignoble business of hauling a baggage 
wagon from the dock to one of the principal hotels. But the little 
gelding had a soul above the drudgery of business, and stepped 
along with so jaunty an air that he attracted the attention of a 
guest at the hotel, who, perceiving in him the promise of better 
things to come, bought him out of the express wagon, bestowed 
upon him his own name, and trained him for the track. As if 
grateful to his benefactor and namesake, Jack proved himself a 
first-class trotter for those primitive days, and won four out of the 
thirteen races he had with Lady Suffolk. 

Forty or fifty years ago the Canadian horses were more promi- 
nent on the American turf than now. They were not always stylish 
or beautiful, but they were sturdy and honest, with legs of iron and 
excellent feet, and could go at a good round trot, and go all day. 
They never got much below the 2.30 line, and would have had 
little chance against the racing machines of to-day, but in those 
far-away days they were considered wonders. 

" Our Lady of the Snows," as Kipling lovingly styles her, has 
always had a warm place in her heart for trotting and pacing races, 
and, next to lacrosse, they are the leading amusement of the mari- 
time provinces. Nor does the approach of their bleak winters stop 
their favorite sport, for when the regular race- tracks here are silent 
and deserted the frozen bays and rivers there re-echo with the hoof- 
beats of the hardy, hairy-legged, bull-necked Canadian ponies. 
Seeing the merry game going on across the border, she determined 
to take a hand, and played what she imagined was a trump card. 
This was a big, raw-boned, up-headed, hard-pulling, bay gelding, 
as unlike the regulation Canuck as well could be, named Passe- 
carreau, after a game of cards popular among the habitans of lower 
Canada. But French is by no means a strong point with the hab< 
itues of the American turf, and when the stranger made his first 
public appearance at Albany, on July 4, 1844, they called him 
Moscow, as the nearest approach to his former name. He trotted 
here for several seasons with moderate success, but was never the 
wonder his Canadian sponsors deemed him. 

Two years later he was followed by a little bay mare, who, hail- 
ing from the Yamaska River region, not far from Quebec, was 
called Yamaska, but her Canadian name being equally unpro- 
nounceable to American ears, was re-named by them Lady Moscow. 
A far better horse than her namesake, and, falling into the hands 



AMERICAN TROTTING HORSE. 21 

of American trainers and drivers, she proved herself one of the 
toughest and best horses which this country has ever received from 
the land of ice and snow. She fought many a hard battle with 
Lady Suffolk, Lady Sutton, and her namesake Moscow, and did not 
often come off second best. 

In her old age she and Lady Sutton grazed together in the same 
Long Island pasture, and Hiram Woodruff says : " When these two 
old competitors met in the pasture, after never having seen eatih 
other for many years, it seemed as if a mutual recognition took 
place. Go by when you would, you would see the two little old mares 
close together, grazing aloof from the other horses in the pasturage. 
They both throve amazingly, and got young again, to all appear- 
ance, in their companionship. When anybody went out near 
them, they would throw up their heads together and strike a trot 
like a spark of the fire of other days. Each had done a vast 
amount of hard work, and their years put together made almost or 
quite half a century. Lady Moscow looked the younger of the 
two, but she has gone first. She was taken with a sort of paralysis 
on Wednesday night, and died Saturday, September 9 (1865), in 
the afternoon. . . . As we stood there on the green hillside, 
looking at the mare that lay dead before us, it was really touching 
to see poor old Sutton, wandering round her dead companion, as if 
unable to make out what had befallen. Two other mares were near 
at hand, but Sutton did not seem to notice them at all, her gaze 
being fixed from time to time on her whose sinews were relaxed 
and whose hoofs at last were still," 

St. Lawrence was one of the best of the old-time Canucks, and 
beat such good horses as Jack Rossiter Chautauqua Chief, old 
Rhode Island and Washington, and achieved a record of 2 m. 34 s. 
He died September 14, 1860, aged twenty-two years, leaving many 
St. Lawrences to keep up the family name, but utterly failed to 
establish a family of trotters. 

Still another Canadian family of some repute were the Normans. 
Some time in the early part of the century a canny Scotchman, in 
Washington County, New York, combined in his thrifty person the 
apparently dissimilar occupations of farmer and illicit distiiler. The 
more readily to dispose of the ardent products of his corn and 
wheat fields, and avert the suspicions of government detectives, he 
made yearly trips to Montreal, where he found a ready market for 
his whisky. From one of these trips he brought back with him 
three horses, one of which was a large, stylish, grey stallion, a little 
knee-sprung from hard usage. It was claimed that he had been 
imported from Normandy, though there was really nothing of the 
Percheron about him, except his color ; still as French styles go in 
horse-flesh as well as in millinery, the fiction was carefully adhered 



22 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

to, and his son, out of a mare by Harris' Hambletonian, was called 
Norman, after his sire's supposed French origin. Norman, or the 
Morse horse, as he is also called, left some good stock ; about the best 
of them was the beautiful Grey Eddy, who defeated Tacony and 
Highland Maid each twice, and Mac and Flora Temple each once, 
and did not lower his colors to any of them. He obtained a record 
of 2 m. 30 s. 

One of the stoutest and best branches of the trotting family is 
the Bashaw, which takes its name from Grand Bashaw, who was 
imported from Tripoli in 1820, and stood in Bucks County, near 
Philadelphia. His son, Young Bashaw, out of Fancy, a daughter 
of old Messenger, is the real founder of the family which can boast 
of Andrew Jackson and his descendants, Kemble Jackson and 
Long Island Black Hawk, Lantern, Awful, John H., Cozette, 
Henry Clay, George M. Patchen, and Hopeful. Andrew Jackson's 
history reads like a romance. 

About day-break one fine morning in April, 1827, as an early 
riser was passing by Daniel Jeffrey's brick-yard, on the German- 
town road, near Philadelphia, he heard a woeful splashing of 
water, and saw on the banks of a deserted clay-pit a coal-black 
mare vainly endeavoring to get her new-born colt out of the water, 
into which it had fallen. The good Samaritan first dragged the 
half-drowned little creature on the banks and laid it at the feet of 
the sorrowing mother, and then aroused Mr. Jeffrey's household, who 
brought the colt to the house, where it was gradually nursed back to 
life. By noon it was able to support itself on its pastern joints, but 
for days it could not stand fairly on its feet, and so pitiable was its 
condition, that one morning, at the breakfast table, Mr. Jeffrey 
offered to give any of the apprentices a dollar to put it out of 
its misery, and bury it out of his sight. But the motherly 
sympathies of good Mrs. Jeffrey went out towards the helpless 
little creature, and she indignantly replied that "the boy who 
would kill that colt should never eat another mouthful at that 
table." Her good offices did not end here. Day by day she 
rubbed and bandaged the weak limbs, until the colt could 
stand upright on its feet, and skip and play and show off all 
the graces of colthood. When he was four years old he 
showed such a fine, open, slashing gait that Mr. John Weaver, 
who lived a little over a mile from the Hunting Park Course, 
bought him, and, being an ardent Democrat, named him Andrew 
Jackson. He did his two miles in 5 m. 20 s., 5 m. 19 s., and forced 
Edwin Forrest out when Gen. Cadwallader's horse made his famous 
record. He is even said to have trotted a mile in 2 m. 30 s. when 
twelve years old, but this is probably apocryphal. As he owed his 
life to a woman's devotion, so, when sixteen years old, he was 



AMERICAN TROTTING HORSE. 23 

to lose it in a woman's behalf. On the night of September 19, 1843, 
Mrs. Weaver was very ill, and Andrew Jackson was driven so hard, 
to bring the doctor in time, that he died that night, and his mistress, 
for whom his life was willingly given, the next day. No wonder the 
Weaver family still cherish his memory, and have two paintings of 
the old horse hanging in their parlor to-day. 

It is not given to many horses or men to achieve immortality on 
their first appearance in public life, but such was the happy fortune 
of Black Hawk, commonly called Long Island Black Hawk, the 
great son of Andrew Jackson, when, on November 17, 1847, draw- 
ing a wagon weighing two hundred and fifty pounds, he defeated 
Jenny Lind, to skeleton wagon, in 2m. 40 s. The Turf Register 
says of this performance : " Taking into consideration that Black 
Hawk never trotted before, we think that his performance is the 
most extraordinary sporting event of the season." Another son, 
Kemble Jackson, was a famous trotter, and had he lived would 
undoubtedly have taken high rank as a long-distance trotter. He 
was a chestnut stallion, with a white hind foot, and very game, but 
had lost most of his races from his habit of throwing down his head 
between his knees, and breaking when he apparently had the race at 
his mercy ; so Hiram Woodruff invented the well-known Kemble 
Jackson rein to cure him. On the first of June, 1853, at the Union 
Course, he was matched to trot three-mile heats to wagon, wagon and 
driver to weigh 395 pounds, against O'Blenis, Boston Girl, Pet, Iola 
and Honest John. This race attracted great attention, and there 
was an immense attendance of people to witness it. The contest 
was mainly between the popular favorites, Kemble Jackson and 
O'Blenis. The latter was by Abdallah, from whom he inherited 
all the fine characteristics of the Messenger stock. Kemble Jack- 
son won the first heat easily in 8 m. 3 s., but O'Blenis was still 
the favorite, as almost every one expected to see the son of Andrew 
Jackson make one of his characteristic breaks when pushed by 
O'Blenis; but thanks to the efficacy of the newly-invented rein, to 
the amazement of the spectators he did not make a single break, 
and won the second heat and the race easily in 8 m. 4|s.; and though 
the time has been frequently beaten, this is generally considered 
one of the best three-mile races ever witnessed on Long Island. 

There was another Black Hawk on the turf in those early 
days, who is often confounded with Long Island Black Hawk. 
Vermont Black Hawk, as he is generally called, was sired by 
Sherman, son of Justin Morgan, and was a beautiful jet-black horse, 
a little under fifteen hands high. A perfect roadster himself, he 
filled New England and Eastern New York with those trappy, up- 
headed, snappy roadsters which are the delight of all true horse- 
men. Black Hawk's early history is singularly like that of Andrew 



24 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

Jackson, for as a colt he was so weak and ugly that his dis- 
gusted owner ordered him killed, and only spared him at the inter- 
cession of a groom. In both cases the ugly ducklings developed 
into magnificent swans. The first eleven years of his life he was 
kept as a family driving horse, and no one could wish a better, but 
passing into the hands of David Hill, of Bridgeport, Vermont, his 
latent talents were developed, and his new master took good care 
that his light should not be hid under a bushel. Not as fast as the 
other Black Hawk, he far surpassed him as a founder of a family, 
and his name will long be remembered when his contemporaries are 
forgotten. 

In the decade ending in 1853, the principal horses on the turf 
were Dutchman, Confidence, Kipton, Lady Suffolk, Americus, 
Moscow, Long Island Black Hawk, Lady Jane, Duchess, Lady 
Moscow, Lady Sutton, Lady Brooks, Lady Franklin, Lady Litch- 
field, Lady Collins, Jack Rossiter, St. Lawrence, Beppo, Washing- 
ton, Independence, Zachary Taylor, Mac, Tacony and Pelham. 

This year saw also the last of the long-distance races. Hereafter 
the speedy milers were to take the place of the stouter but slower 
horses of past generations. The two ten-mile races between the 
gray pacer Hero and the chestnut trotter Prince were rightly con- 
sidered as settling the question of the relative endurance of each 
way of going. Prince won both handily; the pacer, though very 
game, giving out in the sixth mile in the first race and the 
eighth mile in the last. Prince was said to be by the thorough- 
bred Woodpecker, out of a mare by imp. Sarpedon, and, though some 
doubt has been thrown upon this pedigree, his victories gave the 
advocates of the thoroughbred cross in the trotter a " boost " which 
has lasted them to the present day. 

Murray's "Lands of the Slave and the Free" gives a fair idea 
of the American Trotting Turf as it then appeared to English eyes : 

" The race-course is a two-mile distance, perfectly level, on a 
smooth and stoneless road, and forming a complete circle. Light trot- 
ting wagons are driving about in the centre, taking it easy at sixteen 
miles an hour ; outside are groups of ' rowdies ' making their books, 
and looking out for greenhorns, an article not so readily found at 
Long Island as at Epsom. The race is to be ' under the saddle/ 
and the long list of competitors which had been announced has 
dwindled down to the old and far-famed Lady Suffolk and the 
young and unfamed Tacony. A stir among the 'rowdies' is seen, 
followed by the appearance of Lady Suffolk. I gazed in wonder as 
I saw her — a small pony-looking animal, moving her legs as though 
they were in splints, and as if six miles an hour were far beyond 
her powers. Soon after Tacony came forward, the picture of a 
good bony post-horse, destitute of any beauty, but looking full of 



AMERICAN TROTTING HORSE. 25 

good stuff. The riders have no distinctive dress ; a pair of Wel- 
lington boots are pulled on outside the trousers ; sharp spurs are on 
the heels — rough-and-ready looking prads these. The winning post 
is opposite the stand ; the umpire is there with a deal board in his 
hand ; a whack on the side of the stand, ' summons to horse ;' and 
another, ' summons to start/ The start is from the distance-post, 
so as to let the horses get into the full swing of their pace by the 
time they reach the winning-post, when, if they are fairly up to- 
gether, the cry 'off' is given; if it be not given they try again. 
When speaking of the time in which the mile is completed, the fact 
of its commencing at full speed should always be borne in mind. 
Sometimes false starts are made by one party, on purpose to try and 
irritate the temper of the adversary's horse ; and, in the same way, 
if a man feels he has full command of his own horse, he will yell 
like a wild Indian, as he nears his adversary, to make him ' break 
up,' or go into a gallop ; and, as they are all trained to speed more 
by voice than by spur, he very often succeeds, and of course the 
adversary loses much ground by pulling up into a trot again. On 
the present occasion there was no false start; the echo of the 
second whack was still in the ear as they reached the winning-post 
neck-and-neck. ' Off' was the word, and away they went. It 
certainly was marvellous to see how dear old Lady Suffolk and her 
stiff legs flew round the course ; one might have fancied she had 
been fed on lightning, so quick did she move them, but with won- 
derfully short steps. Tack, on the contrary, looked as if he had 
been dieted on India-rubber balls. Every time he raised a hind- 
leg it seemed to shoot to his own length ahead of himself; if he 
could have made his steps as quick as the old Lady, he might have 
done a mile in a minute nearly. Presently Tacony breaks up, and 
ere he pulls into a trot a long gap is left ; shouts of ' Lady Suffolk ! 
Lady Suffolk wins Y rend the air ; a few seconds more and the 
giant strides of Tacony lessen the gap at every step ; they reach the 
distance-post neck-and-neck : 'Tacony wins V is the cry; and true 
enough it is, by a length. , Young blood beats old blood ; India- 
rubber balls ' whip' lightning. Time, 5 m. The usual excitement 
and disputes follow ; the usual time elapses, whack number one is 
heard — all ready — whack number two; on they come; snaffle- 
bridles — pulling at their horses' mouths as though they would pull 
the bit right through to the tips of their tails. ' Off !' is the cry ; 
away they go again. Tacony breaks up ; again a gap, which huge 
strides speedily close up again — Tacony wins. Time, 5 m. 5 s." 
In another part of his travels in America, the same gentleman 
alludes to another locality: — " The race-course at Philadelphia is a 
road on a perfect level, and a circle of one mile ; every stone is 
carefully removed, and it looks as smooth and clean as a swept 



26 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

floor. The stand commands a perfect view of the course, but its 
neglected appearance shows clearly that trotting-matches here are 
not as fashionable as they used to be, though far better attended 
than at New York. Upon the present occasion the excitement was 
intense ; you could detect it even in the increased vigor with which 
the smoking and spitting were carried on. An antagonist had been 
found bold enough to measure speed with ' Mac' — the great Mac, 
who, while ' whipping creation/ was also said never to have let out 
his full speed. He was thoroughbred, about 15 J hands, and 
lighter built than my rawboned friend Tacony, and he had lately 
been sold for 16001 So sure did people, apparently, feel of Mac's 
easy victory, that even betting was out of the question. Unlike 
the Long Island affair, the riders appeared in jockey attire, and the 
whole thing was far better got up. Ladies, however, had long 
ceased to grace such scenes. Various false starts were made, all 
on the part of Mac, who, trusting to the bottom of blood, apparently 
endeavored to ruffle Tacony's temper, and weary him out a little. 
How futile were the efforts the sequel plainly showed. At length 
a start was effected and away they went, Tacony with his hind legs 
as far apart as the centre arch of Westminster Bridge, and with 
strides that would almost clear the Bridgewater canal. M,ac's rider 
soon found that in trying to ginger Tacony's temper he had pep- 
pered his own horse's, for he broke up into a gallop twice. Old 
Tacony and his rider had evidently got intimate since I had seen 
them at New York, and they now thoroughly understood each 
other. On he went with giant strides ; Mac fought bravely for the 
van, but could not get his nose beyond Tacony's saddle-girth at the 
winning-post. Time, 2 m. 25 J s. Then followed the usual race- 
course accompaniments of cheers, squabbles, growling^ laughing, 
betting, drinking, &c. The public were not convinced ; Mac was 
still the favorite ; the champion chaplet was not thus hastily to be 
plucked from his hitherto victorious brow. Half an hour's rest 
brought them again to the starting-post, when Mac repeated his 
old tactics, and with similar bad success. Nothing could ruffle 
Tacony, or produce one false sfep ; he flew round the course, every 
stride like the ricochet of a 32-lb. shot. His adversary broke up 
again and again, losing both his temper and his place, and barely 
saved his distance as the gallant Tacony, his rider with a slack rein 
and patting him on the neck, reached the winning-post. Time, 
2 m. 25 J s. The shouts were long and loud; such time had never 
been made before by fair trotting, and Tacony evidently could have 
done it in two if not three seconds less. The fastest pacing ever 
accomplished before was 2 m. 17 J s. ; and the fastest trotting, 2 m. 
26 s. The triumph was complete, Tacony nobly won the victorious 
garland ; and as long as he and his rider go together, it will take, 



AMERICAN TROTTING HORSE. 27 

if not a rum 'un to look at, at all events a d — 1 to go, ere he be 
forced to resign his championship/' 

The clever Englishman is too enthusiastic in his estimate of 
Tacony. He was indeed a good horse, but capable judges of their 
respective merits esteem Mac the better of the two. The latter's 
day was indeed a short one, but his triumphs were neither few nor 
far between, and were achieved over the most famous trotters of 
that day, Flora Temple alone excepted. Hiram Woodruff in his 
" Trotting Horse of America" says, "They were very close together 
when in condition, but Mac had a little the best of the roan, in my 
judgment, until he was injured by over-driving and got ' the 
thumps/ " 

Scarcely had the star of Lady Suffolk set behind the horizon 
when another star arose whose glory was to eclipse even that of the 
gallant gray mare. Flora Temple was foaled in 1845 in Oneida 
Co., N. Y., and made her debut in the summer of 1850, and from 
that time to her forced retirement in 1861, her career was one of 
almost uninterrupted victory. During her career on the turf she 
trotted one hundred and eleven races, winning ninety three, and 
earning for her owners in purses and stakes the sum of $113,000. 
She was a blood bay, by One-Eyed Kentucky Hunter out of 
Madame Temple, who was got by a spotted horse said to be an 
Arabian. She was 14J hands high, with black legs, mane and 
tail, and had a peculiarly quick and nervous gait. When she was 
but an hour old her breeder, Mr. Tracy, cut off her tail with his 
jack-knife so short that she was for some time afterwards known as 
the " stump-tailed filly." Mr. Tracy kept her until she was four 
years old, when, finding her willful and unserviceable, he disposed of 
her to Mr. William H. Congdon, of Smyrna, Chenango county, for 
the sum of thirteen dollars. Mr. Congdon shortly afterwards dis- 
posed of her to Kelly & Richardson for $68. After passing through 
several hands, part of the time working in a livery stable, she was 
sold to Mr. George E. Perrin, of New York, for $350, in whose 
hands the flighty young mare became a true stepper. Her first 
regular appearance on the turf was at the Union Course, L. I., 
September 9, 1850, where, a mere outsider, to the astonishment of 
the turf habitues, she defeated Whitehall and three others, for the 
magnificent purse of $50, in 2 m. 55 s., 2 m. 52 s., and 2 m. 49 s., 
after Whitehall had won the first heat in 2 m. 52 s. The next year, 
owing to an accident, she was not in training, and in 1852 she 
trotted but two races, both of which she won ; but in 1853 she 
entered in earnest upon her wonderful career, trotting twenty-one 
races and winning seventeen of them. Her first race that year was 
at the old Hunting Park Course, Philadelphia, where she was 
beaten by Black Douglas, a horse of some local celebrity, but after- 



28 A SHORT HISTORY OP THE 

wards beat him twice without much difficulty. She also beat 
Highland Maid twice, Green Mountain Maid three times, Tacony 
seven times, Rhode Island three times, and Lady Brooks and 
Lady Vernon each once. She suffered defeat from Tacony, and 
once each from Black Douglas and Green Mountain Maid. The 
next year she defeated Mac, Lady Brooks, Jack Waters, and 
Green Mountain Maid, and was beaten but once — by Green 
Mountain Maid. In 1855, after being defeated in her opening ' 
race by the gray mare Sontag, and then vainly endeavoring to 
trot twenty miles against time, she won six races right off the reel, 
defeating Lancet, Sontag, Lady Franklin, Chicago Jack, Miller's 
Damsel, Frank Forrester, and Hero the pacer. The next two 
years were principally distinguished by her contests with the slashing 
black gelding Lancet, in which she carried off most of the honors, 
although she also found time to meet and conquer Tacony, Chicago 
Jack, Rose of Washington, Ethan Alien, and others, and reduced 
her record to 2 m. 24? s. In 1858 she was sold to Mr. William 
McDonald, a wealthy gentleman of Baltimore, for $8000, and 
during the year scored thirteen victories without a single defeat. 
Her first race in 1859 was with Ethan Allen, at the Fashion 
Course, to wagon. Ethan Allen was a beautiful horse, fast and 
game, with faultless trotting action, but withal not a good weight 
puller. With a running mate to take the weight of the wagon off 
of him he could trot like a flash of light, but by himself his fastest 
time is 2 m. 25 J s. At the stud he was a success, and his sons 
and grandsons have done much to add to the fame of the Morgan 
family. On this occasion Flora beat him in the quick time 
of 2 m. 25 s., 2 m. 27? s., and 2 m. 27 J s. On June 16, she met 
the bay mare Princess, who had come from California with a great 
reputation, especially as a long-distance trotter, but Flora beat her, 
at the Eclipse Course, three-mile heats, to wagon, in 7 m. 54 s., 
and 7 m. 59? s. In their second encounter at the same place, 
twelve days later, Princess won in straight heats, in 5 m. 2 s. and 
5 m. 5 s., and many astute turfmen thought that the little bay 
mare had met her mistress ; but their third time of meeting Flora 
won in the quick time for those days of 2 m. 23J s., 2 m. 22 s., 
and 2 m. 23 J s., and in the fourth encounter — a race of two-mile 
heats — she likewise beat her, in the marvellous time of 4 m. 50 J s. 
and 5 m. 5 s. These defeats settled the question of supremacy, 
and conquered the spirit of the California mare, and, though they 
afterwards went on a hippodroming tour through the country, 
Princess never won another race from her. But Flora's greatest 
glory was to come. On October 15, 1859, at Kalamazoo, Michigan, 
in a race with Princess and Honest Anse, she electrified the whole 
country by trotting the third heat in 2 m. 19| s., which for eight 



AMERICAN TROTTING HORSE. 29 

years stood at the head of the record, until the mighty Dexter 
surpassed it at Buffalo in 1867. 

After this great exploit Flora went to Cleveland, where she beat 
Princess with great ease and in poor time ; and at Cuyahoga Falls, 
on the 28th of October, she did the same for Ike Cooke. After 
the crushing defeats of poor Princess, few imagined that any horse 
would be so bold as to challenge the little bay mare's premiership. 
But now the Jersey stallion Greorge M. Patchen threw down the 
gauntlet, and at the Union Course, November 21, they met in the 
first of those memorable contests, the recital of which even now causes 
the cheeks of the old turfman to burn with excitement. Greorge M. 
Patchen was four years her junior, being foaled in 1849, and was very 
well bred, his sire being Cassius M. Clay, and his dam by a son of 
Imported Trustee out of a daughter of American Eclipse. He was 
a powerful brown horse, above 16 hands high, with great strength 
and much bone. He was coarse about the head, and heavy in the 
carcass ; but, though he was what might be called a plain horse, 
his points were uncommonly strong and good, and his action capital. 
He had defeated such horses as Lancet, Brown Dick, Lady Wood- 
ruff, Miller's Damsel, and Pilot, and was no mean opponent even 
for the little bay mare ; but to make the match more open, she was 
to go in harness while he went under the saddle. The mare won 
the first two heats, in 2m. 28 s. and 2m. 23 s., with the stallion close 
up in each. In the third, Flora was first over the score, in 2 m. 24 s., 
but it was given to Patchen, because of her crossing him and run- 
ning. Darkness coming on, the race was postponed, and never 
trotted out.- On June 6, 1850, Flora and Patchen met for the 
second time. Hiram Woodruff thus describes the race : " It came 
off on the 6th of June, over the Union Course. The start was 
even ; but Flora soon made a skip, and the stallion got the lead ; 
but the mare caught, and, going on with uncommon resolution, 
headed him, and led a length at the quarter in 35 s. On the 
straight work, she drew away a little more ; but the stallion now 
made a great burst of speed, and she broke. At the half-mile, in 

1 m. 11 s., he had a lead of a length, and soon increased it to two 
lengths ; but, upon the turn, the mare squared herself, drew up to 
him, and came in to the stretch with him. The struggle home was 
one of the fastest and closest things that ever were seen. They 
came on neck-and-neck at an amazing rate; and within three 
strides of home it seemed to be a dead heat. McMann, at the 
very last, struck Flora sharply with the whip, let go of her head, 
and with one desperate effort she was first, by a throat-latch, in 

2 m. 21 s., the best time that we had then seen on the Island. 
The last half-mile had been trotted in lm. 10 s., and was a neck- 
and-neck race nearly all the way. In the second heat, Flora was 



30 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

two lengths ahead at the quarter-pole ; and Patchen breaking en 
the back-stretch, her lead was three lengths at the half-mile. On 
the lower turn he closed the daylight; and another very hard, 
close struggle up the home-stretch ended in his defeat by only a 
neck in 2 m. 24 s. Tallman made an appeal after this heat, alleging 
that McMann had driven foul, by swerving out, and compelling him 
to go to the extreme outside. The judges disagreed ; but the ma- 
jority overruled the objection. In the third heat they got off well 
together. On the turn she led slightly, being on the inside, and at 
the quarter, in 36 s., she led him nearly a length. He now made 
a wonderful effort, and trotted one of the best quarters that I have 
ever seen He was nearly a length behind at the quarter-pole, in 
3G s.; at the half-mile pole, in 1 m. 10 s., he led. Therefore, he 
trotted this, the second quarter in the third heat, in better than 
34 s On the lower turn, he led two lengths. But the mare now 
gathered herself up for one of her rushes, and closed with him. 
Up the stretch it was again close and hot. But she had a little 
the best of it, and at the very last pinch he broke. She won in 
2 m. 21 J s. I consider this the best race that Flora Temple ever 
made ; and as the stallion was so little behind her that the differ- 
ence could not be appreciated by timing, it shows what a remarkable 
and excellent horse he also was." On the 12th of June, they 
trotted two-mile heats in harness, at the Union Course, and Patchen 
won in two straight heats, in 4 m. 58i s. and 4 m. 57J s. Two 
matches were then made, to be trotted at Suffolk Park, Philadelphia, 
the first, mile heats, three in five ; the second, two-mile heats. The 
first of them was trotted on the 4th of July, and Flora won in 
2 m. 22| s., 2 m. 21f s., and 2m. 37 i s. On the 10th of July, they 
trotted the two-mile heat. Patchen won the first heat, in 4 m. 51 i s., 
and would have won the second but for the outrageous interference 
of a mob, who threw clubs and hats in his face when he had the race 
well in hand, and frightened him. He was then withdrawn, and 
Flora declared the winner. At the Union Course, August 2, they 
met again. Patchen won the first heat in 2 m. 23 J s., which is 
his best record, and Flora the last three, in 2 m. 22 J s., 2 m. 23 J s., 
and 2 m. 25f s. At Saugus, Mass., August 28, she beat him again, 
and at the Centreville Course, September 24, she beat him two-mile 
heats, in 4 m. 55? s. and 5 m. After the failure of Flora to beat 
Dutchman's time, they started out upon a hippodroming tour 
upon much the same principles as those which controlled in her 
campaign with Princess, and with the same results : Flora taking 
all the honors, and the gate-money being equally divided between 
them. After the last of these exhibition trots at Corning, Octo- 
ber 31, Patchen was sent to the stud, and though he afterwards 
came out and fought the famous series of battles with General 



AMERICAN TROTTING HORSE. 31 

Butler, he never met Flora again, and died May, 1864, leaving 
a reputation of which his numerous descendants may well be 
proud. 

Her reputation was now so well established that it was difficult 
for the mare to find any horse bold enough to contend with her ; 
but at length a new antagonist put in an appearance in John Mor- 
gan, but in two races at the Centreville Course in June, 1861, mile 
heats and two-mile heats, he was beaten in the mile race in 2 m. 
24f s., 2 m. 26 s., and 2 m. 28J s., and in the two-mile race in 
4 m. 55J s. and 4 m. 52i s. Flora's owner, Mr. McDonald, 
sympathizing with the rebellion, soon after these races she was 
confiscated by the government, and her trotting days were ended. 
She was sold in 1864 to Mr. A. Welch, the princely owner of 
Leamington and Alarm, for $8000, and at his beautiful farm at 
Chestnut Hill roamed the meadows in her well-earned leisure. Her 
first foal was a filly by Rysdyk, son of Rysdyk's Hambletonian r 
called Kitty Temple, who has never shown any great speed. Her 
second foal was the stallion Prince Imperial, by William Welch, a 
handsome, wiry little horse, full of courage and vim. Her third 
and last foal was a filly by Imported Leamington. Flora Temple 
died December 21, 1877, and was buried in the lawn at Chestnut 
Hill. While I write there is on the desk before me her fore-leg 
and hoof, stuffed and mounted by Krider in his most artistic style, 
and though she was over thirty-two years old at the time of her 
death, and had been on the turf for eleven years, trotting as few 
horses ever trotted, there is not a single break or crack in the neat, 
deerlike hoof; it is as sound and true as when she was foaled. 

During the first years of the great Rebellion the turf languished 
well nigh unto death — " Inter arma leges silent" — and few cared 
for the mimic contests of the turf, when on the great battle-fields 
of Virginia and Pennsylvania the fate of the nation was being 
decided amid the clash of arms and the thunder of cannon. The 
sporting papers yielded to the changed state of affairs, and the 
editorials of the " Spirit of the Times" now breathed forth threat- 
enings and slaughter, and paid but little attention to aught but the 
stirring news of the day. Even their correspondence was dated 
from the camps on the Potomac or Rappahannock, and now told only 
of marches and countermarches and the details of army life. In 
the Fall of 1862 the turf revived somewhat in the immediate 
neighborhood of New York, and Lady Emma and Jilt, and General 
Butler and Rockingham, trotted several notable races, and George 
Wilkes, the first of Hambletonian's sons to show to the world the 
merits of that greatest family of trotters, made his first appearance, 
defeating Ethan Allen in three straight heats, in 2 m. 24| s., 
2 m. 25f s., and 2 m. 31 s. George Wilkes is a dark brown stal- 



32 A SHORT HISTORY OP THE 

lion, 15 hands high, got by Rysdyk's Hambletonian out of a Clay 
mare called Dolly Spanker, and great as were his performances, he 
would in all probability have attained still greater distinction on the 
turf had he been more judiciously handled and not trotted such 
severe races before his powers had fully matured. He died in 
Kentucky May 28, 1882, at the age of twenty-six, the greatest of 
all the Hambletonian stallions except Volunteer. In 1863 General 
Butler, George Wilkes, George M. Patchen, Silas Rich, California 
Damsel, and Shark, another son of Hambletonian, were all on the 
turf, and had it been any other than a war year would have won 
even greater glory than fell to their share. 

In the history of all nations there are certain epochs or cycles 
which are so resplendent with the deeds of some statesman or gen- 
eral or monarch, that they serve as mile stones along the pathway 
of the ages and landmarks by which we count the progress of 
events ; so in the history of the turf there have been periods when 
the pre-eminence of certain horses was so marked that to mention the 
years in which they nourished is but to recall their names. From 
1838 to 1852 had been the era of Lady Suffolk and her famous 
contemporaries. Flora Temple had flourished from that date until 
the breaking out of the war, and now was to commence what might 
be called the age of the Hambletonians, for descendants of Rysdyk's 
Hambletonian, the old hero of Chester, were now making that name 
on the turf which they have held to the present day. The war 
clouds were now breaking away ; it could plainly be seen that the 
days of the Confederacy were numbered ; business was prosperous, 
and the number of wealthy men interested in driving horses had 
wonderfully increased. The turf was now to enter upon a career 
of prosperity, and every large city all over the Union was to have 
its trotting course. 

The 4th of May, 1864, will ever be a red-letter day in the 
memory of all turfmen, for that day witnessed the first public 
appearance of Dexter the incomparable. He was foaled in Orange 
County, New York, in 1858. His sire was Rysdyk's Hamble- 
tonian, and his dam was a daughter of American Star. He is 15 
hands 1£ inches high, and is a rich brown in color, with four white 
legs, and a blaze in the face. 

It was on the Fashion Course, where he beat Stonewall Jackson, 
of New York, General Grant, and Lady Collins. Two days after 
he beat the last named again on the Union Course. On the 
13th of May he defeated Doty's mare to wagon on the Union 
Course, and five days afterwards, at the Fashion Course, he beat 
Shark and Lady Shannon, and jogged out the third heat in 2 m. 
30 s. On the 3d of June he trotted mile heats to wagon, at the 
Fashion, against Shark and Hambletonian, but he hit his knee in 



AMERICAN TROTTING HORSE. 33 

scoring and had to be withdrawn. He did not trot any more that 
year, but on June 2, 1865, he came out and defeated General Butler 
at the Fashion Course, trotting the third heat in 2 m. 24? s. Ten 
days afterwards he was pitted against the mighty Lady Thorne, who 
had a few days previously trotted in 2 m. 24 J s., but the lady beat 
him in four heats, the best of which was 2 m. 24 s. This was the 
only time Lady Thorne ever beat him. June 26th, Dexter 
defeated Stonewall Jackson, of Hartford, three-mile heats, to 
saddle, and then beat General Butler, to saddle, and Butler 
and George Wilkes, in harness, in straight heats, in both races. 
He was then backed to trot against time and beat 2 m. 19 s., and 
won easily in the first trial, in 2 m. 18£ s. He then defeated Gen- 
eral Butler on the Fashion Course, to wagons, in 2 m. 27 i s. and 2 
m. 29 s. On the 27th of October the horses met again, two-mile 
heats, to wagons. Butler had a two-mile record to wagon of 4 m. 
56i s., and was considered a fit antagonist for the young champion. 
Dexter, however, won easily in two straight heats, in 5 m. f s. and 

4 m. 56 \ s., and closed his second season in a blaze of glory. 

He commenced the season of 1866 by defeating General Butler 
and Commodore Vanderbilt, in two races at the Union Course, the 
California stallion, George M. Patchen, Jr., also being in the first of 
them. He had now become so famous that there was a general 
desire all over the country to see him, and a hippodroming cam- 
paign, with the California stallion, was arranged, in which Dexter 
invariably won. In 1867 he defeated Goldsmith Maid once and 
Lady Thorne three times, and then, despairing of finding any one 
to make him extend himself, a match was arranged on the Fashion 
Course between him and Ethan Allen and running mate. The team, 
contrary to general expectation, won in three straight heats, in 2 m. 
15 s., 2 m. 16 s., and 2 m. 19 s. Dexter's real time, though, of 
course, not a matter of record, was 2 m. 16 s., 2 m. 17 s., and 
2 m. 21 s. Mr. Charles J. Foster, in an admirable essay in 
Wallace's Monthly, says of this race : " This, though a losing one, 
was the best performance Dexter ever made upon the course. To 
trot mile after mile at such a rate, against winning opponents, 
runner and trotter on the outside, and never to flinch an inch, 
manifests the most admirable resolution. He never broke, and 
was not forced out at the end of the heats. I never saw another 
trotter that could, in my estimation, have stood the pinch. I have 
seen some very fast ones that would have gone all to pieces when 
collared in the second heat, as Dexter was/' Eight days after this 
severe race he defeated Lady Thorne, two-mile heats, to wagon, in 

5 m. 1 s. and 5 m. 9 s. ; and on July 4th, he met with his second 
defeat from Ethan Allen and running mate, over the half-mile 
track at Morristown, N. J. On July 10, at Trenton, N. J., he and 

o 



34 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

Lady Thorne met for the last time, and with the usual result. 
On the 16th, he beat Brown G-eorge and running mate at Albany, 
and trotted the second and third heats in 2 m. 20 £ s. He beat 
them again at Providence, July 26. And on the 30th, he beat 
them again at the Riverside half-mile course, Boston. In this 
race he made 2 m. 21f s., 2 m. 19 s., and 2 m. 21} s. After that. 
at Buffalo, he beat his Boston time by trotting a mile in 2 m. 17} s., 
and hardly had the time been given out, and while the vast audi- 
ence was still cheering, when the well-known form of Mr. Robert 
Bonner was seen entering the judges' stand. A3 he rarely pat- 
ronized the race-track, and never allowed his horses to trot for 
money, every one wondered what it meant. In a few minutes the 
judges announced that Dexter had been purchased for $35,000. His 
new owner sent this characteristic message to a friend in New York : 
" I saw Niagara Falls this morning for the first time, and I came down 
here this afternoon to see that other great wonder, Dexter, when he 
trotted in the unprecedented time of 2 m. 174 s. You know I like to 
own all the best things, and inasmuch as I could not buy the Falls, 
I thought I would do the next best thing and buy Dexter. He will 
go into my stable on the tenth of next month." Mr. Bonner was 
a Scotchman, and had an eye to business in purchasing Dexter. 
lie foresaw that it would be chronicled in all the newspapers and 
the New York Ledger obtain a notoriety that no amount of ordi- 
nary advertising would have given it. He has since stated that it 
was the cheapest advertisement he ever made. Dexter died at Mr. 
Bonner's stable in New York, April 21, 1888, aged thirty years. 

After Dexter's retirement came the ladies' era, when the three 
great mares, Lady Thorne, Goldsmith Maid, and American Girl 
contended for the mastery. 

Of this brilliant coterie Lady Thorne, the big, one-eyed, thorough- 
bred mare from Kentucky, was easily the first. Standing full 16} 
hands high, with a good head and neck, deep shoulders, remark- 
able withers, long-bodied and leggy, she was one of the most blood- 
like and thoroughbred trotters that ever stepped the turf. She had 
lost an eye accidentally, and had an enlarged ankle behind from 
her kicking propensities when breaking, and was unusually fiery 
and high spirited. Her breeding was right royal. Her sire was 
Mambrino Chief, and her dam a daughter of the thoroughbred 
Gano, a son of the famous American Eclipse. Her career was 
worthy of such high lineage, and as she stole around the course 
with that low, long, sweeping stride of hers, woe betide those con- 
tending with her; for, though not seeming to be going so fast, 
she nearly always found herself well in front at the close of each 
heat. She was on the turf eleven years, and trotted sixty-six 
races, of which she won fifty-one, and received in purses and 



AMERICAN TROTTING HORSE. 35 

stakes $61,125, and enjoys the distinction of being the only horse 
that ever in fair contest lowered the colors of the mighty Dexter. 
Lady Thorne was foaled in 1856, and trotted her maiden race, when 
three years old, under the name of Ashland Maid ; hut, owing to 
the breaking out of the war and other circumstances, her turf career 
did not fairly commence until 1863, when she was brought to the 
east and her name changed to Lady Thorne. In 1865 she beat 
Dexter at the Union Course, L. I. , taking first, second, and fourth 
heats, in 2 m. 24 s., 2 m. 26 J s., and 2 m. 26} s. respectively, and 
the world knew that the big one-eyed mare was a trotter. She 
also beat that year Frank Vernon, Stonewall Jackson, George 
Wilkes, and Lady Emma, and did not lose a single race. In the 
next two years she trotted numerous races against Dexter, George 
Wilkes, Mountain Boy, Lucy, Lady Emma, Bruno, Old Put, with 
moderate success ; but in 1868 she came out in fine form, beating 
Lucy, General Butler and George Wilkes, and two others, at the 
Fashion Course, May 22, in 2 m. 24£ s., 2 m. 23 s., and 2 m. 25 s. 
She trotted eleven other races that year, reducing her record to 
2 m. 21 s., and defeating Mountain Boy, Lucy, George Wilkes, 
General Butler, Holla Golddust, Rhode Island, George Palmer. 
She lost but one race, Mountain Boy beating her at Point Breeze, 
Philadelphia, September 16. In 1869 she showed still greater 
speed. She beat Goldsmith Maid in July, in three heats, time, 
2 m. 21f s., 2 m. 20£ s., and 2 m. 21} s.j in August she beat her 
and American Girl in 2 m. 20f s., 2 m. 20 J s., and 2 m. 20} s.; 
on September 9, 1869, at Point Breeze Park, near Philadelphia, 
she defeated them again in 2 m. 21 f s., 2 m. 19} s., and 2 m. 23} s., 
when a greater number of people were assembled than on any pre- 
vious occasion, ten thousand dollars being taken at the gates for 
admission, while a couple of thousand jumped the fence to witness 
this great race. An old friend says the people began to come in 
the morning and came all day. Every vestige of space in the 
club house and grand stand, and upon the roofs of the same, 
was filled. A fourth time, October 1, she was victorious over 
the same two mares, George Palmer being also in the race, in 2 m. 
20} s., 2 m. 20} s., and 2 m. 20 s.; and on October 8, at Narra- 
gansctt Park, she won her best race and made her fastest time, de- 
feating George Palmer, Goldsmith Maid, Lucy, and American Girl, 
winning the first, second and fourth heats in 2 m. 19f s., 2 m. 18} s., 
ana? 2 m. 21 s., George Palmer taking the third heat in 2 m. 19} s. 
George Palmer was a little, lightly built bay gelding, by a horse 
called Lame Bogus, of whom very little is known. He belonged to 
Mr. Erastus Corning of Albany, the son of the famous railroad 
king, and, had he appeared in any other period than that of the 
three mighty mares, might have achieved much greater fame. It 



36 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

is remarkable that Lady Thome beat Goldsmith Maid every time she 
met her, and never lost a single heat to her. In 1870, she trotted 
but two races at the Fashion Course. July 4, she met and defeated 
Goldsmith Maid, American Girl, George Wilkes, George Palmer, 
and Lucy, in three straight heats, in 2 m. 23J s., 2 m. 23 s., 2 m. 
24 i s., and three weeks afterwards, at Prospect Park, she beat 
Goldsmith Maid, in 2 m. 19J s., 2 m. 20£ s., and 2 m. 19! s. She 
was to meet her again at Buffalo, but slipped while being put on 
the cars at Rochester, and injured her near hip so badly that she 
was never able to trot again, and was sent to the Fashion Stud 
Farm at Trenton, N. J. 

In his reminiscences of trotters, published in the Spirit of the 
Times, Dan Mace, who knew her so well, says of her : " You can 
put it down as an absolute certainty that Lady Thorne could trot a 
mile in 2 m. 10 s., in harness, in 2 m. 15 s., to wagon. I will not 
say how much faster than this the old mare could trot. I never 
saw her trot a full mile at her best but once, and there are two 
other men living, besides myself, who can tell how fast that was, 
but I shall never tell, and it is probable that they will not. It 
was so fast that it would not be credited by the public, and so we 
agreed that we would never mention the time. But I will say this 
much: it was a faster gait for the whole mile than I ever saw kept 
up by any other horse for a single quarter." 

Be that as it may, her retirement left Goldsmith Maid the 
mistress of the turf, which she held until her retirement in 1877. 

Goldsmith Maid was foaled in May, 1857, and was by Alexan- 
der's Abdallah, a son of Rysdyk's Hambletonian, out of a mare by 
old Abdallah, and was consequently very closely inbred to the 
famous rat-tailed sire. She was a blood bay, small, wiry and so 
ungovernable that in the first eight years of her existence she did 
not do an honest day's work. She jumped fences, reared up and 
fell over backwards when hitched to a harrow, and kicked herself 
loose, and ran away when harnessed to a wagon, and, in short, com- 
ported herself so disagreeably that her breeder, Mr. Decker, was 
glad to sell her to his nephew, who thought something could be 
done with her. But he, too, repented of his bargain and, after 
one day's ownership, sold her to a gentleman he met as he was en- 
deavoring to take her home. Three months sufficed her owner num- 
ber three, and he traded her off to Alden Goldsmith ; and patient, 
kindly usage succeeded where force had failed. In September, 
1865, at Goshen, N. Y., she trotted her first race against Uncle 
Sam, Mountain Boy and Wild Irishman, and won in three straight 
heats, in 2 m. 39 s., 2 m. 36 s., and 2 m. 39 s. She then beat 
Sorrel Bill, at Poughkeepsie, making a record of 2 m. 31 s., and 
was beaten by General Butler, at Copake, N. Y., in fast time. In 






AMERICAN TROTTING HORSE. 37 



1866 she trotted eight races, winning all but one, and in 1867, five 
races, losing two, once to Dexter and once to Crazy Jane. In 1868 
she won eight times, and reduced her record to 2 m. 22 J s. In the 
fall of this year she was sold to Messrs. Doble & Jackman, and 
henceforth Budd Doble handled the reins over her. She began 
the season of 1869 badly by losing five times to American Girl, 
a very powerful big bay mare by a son of Cassius M, Clay, out 
of a Virginia mare of unknown pedigree, who was trotting very 
strongly that year, and gave promise of taking up the sceptre 
which Dexter had voluntarily laid down. She beat Lucy at 
Boston, and trotted in 2 m. 20 i s. She beat George Palmer 
on the Fashion Course. She met American Girl at Suffolk 
Park, Philadelphia, and beat her in three straight heats, all 
better than 2 m. 20 s. That was the first time any horse beat 
2 m. 20 s. in all the heats of a race. Goldsmith Maid won eight 
races that year, and beat all those that had beaten her, save Lady 
Thorne, who was then in her prime, and who won five races from 
her. In 1870 Goldsmith Maid won eleven times. She did not 
beat 2 m. 20 s. that year, but she trotted in 2 m. 24 J s. to wagon. 
In 1871 Goldsmith Maid continued her brilliant career. At Fleet- 
wood Park, Baltimore, Prospect Park, Brooklyn, Boston and 
Buffalo she beat all her competitors, including" American Girl and 
Lucy. At the latter place she again won all the heats in better 
than 2 m. 20 s. Here she failed in an effort to beat Dcxter's 
time — 2 m. 17i s., for an extra purse. But she soon after trotted 
in 2 m. 17 s. at Milwaukee, and Dexter's brilliant record was at 
last eclipsed. Goldsmith Maid continued on the great Western 
route, and reached as far as Omaha and Council Bluffs, away up 
the Missouri Biver. In 1872, after one trot at Philadelphia, the 
little mare went to Boston, and trotted on the Mystic Course in 
2 m. 16 1 s. Afterwards, at Prospect Park, she put in all the heats 
in better than 2 m. 20 s. ; and at Cleveland she did it for the fourth 
time. It was now determined to take the Maid to the Pacifio 
coast on a hippodroming tour, and Lucy, a fine, big, slashing 
mare by George M. Patchen, with a record of 2 m. 18J s., was 
selected as her understudy. Lucy was deserving of a far better 
fate, and pressed the Maid closely in her races, being only allowed 
to win when the Maid was " off." The two mares were owned by Mr. 
H. N. Smith, of the Fashion Stock Farm, at Trenton, N. J., 
whither Lucy retired in the following year and the Maid four 
years later, and where both they and their great competitor, Lady 
Thorne, now rest side by side under the sod of the Fashion 
track. Some horsemen who remember the old brown mare, with 
her flashing eye and peculiar manner of projecting her ears for- 
ward, even now maintain that Lucy was not the least of the 



38 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

belles of the Fashion thirty years ago. In 1 873 the Maid did 
not trot any especially fast heats; in 1874 she trotted seventeen 
times, with increase of speed, and did not lose a single race. At 
Saginaw, Mich., she went in 2 m. 16 s. At Springfield, Mass., 
she again made 2 m. 16 s., and all the heats were better than 2 m. 
20 s. Three times that year she beat 2 m. 20 s. in all the heats. 
At Rochester she trotted a second heat in 2 m. 14f s.; and at 
Mystic Park, Boston, September 14, for a special purse, in which 
she was required to beat her Rochester time, she trotted in 2 m. 
14 s. In 1875 she trotted only six races, and was beaten once by 
Lula — who had trotted a mile in 2 m. 15 s. at Buffalo the week 
previous — at Rochester, but beat her at Utica the following week. 
In 1876 Goldsmith Maid trotted seven races, losing but that mem- 
orable race at Cleveland, described elsewhere. Besides this she 
trotted against her own record seven times, and though failing to 
reduce it, she trotted at Belmont Park, Philadelphia, June 23, in 
2 m. 14 s. In 1877 she trotted several races in California, against 
Rarus and others, and at Chico, Cal., May 19, over a rough track, 
she defeated Rarus in 2 m. 1 9£ s., 2 m. 14 J s. and 2 m. 17 s. She 
was entered in the Grand Circuit in trials for speed, and at 
the close of the season was retired to the Fashion Stock Farm, at 
Trenton, N. J., where she died September 23, 1885, at the ripe 
old age of twenty-eight. Take her all in all, it may be ques- 
tioned whether her like has ever been seen on the American turf. 
She won 95 contested races and 332 heats in 2 m. 30 s. 3 or 
better. During her career Goldsmith Maid travelled on the cars 
over 130,000 miles, and earned for her owners over $325,000 
in stakes and purses. 

The year 1875 is a notable one in the annals of the trotting turf. 
The combined series of trotting meetings which was inaugurated 
in 1866 by the trotting associations of Cleveland and Rochester, 
at which meetings the purses given amounted to $15,650, had in- 
creased in number and importance, until it extended from the 
shores of Lake Erie almost to the Atlantic Ocean, and now em- 
braced the associations of Cleveland, Buffalo, Rochester, Utica, 
Poughkeepsie, Hartford, and Springfield, and the purses offered at 
these meetings aggregated the enormous sum of $245,000. Among 
the horses whose fleet hoofs trod these tracks that season were 
Goldsmith Maid, American Girl, Lula, Smuggler, Hopeful, Rarus, 
Lucille Golddust, Judge Fullerton, Great Eastern, Lady Maud, 
Nettie, St. Julien, Huntress, John H., Cozette, Sensation, Bodine, 
May Queen, Scotland, Grafton, Kansas Chief, Belle Brassfield, 
Mazo-Manie, Bella, Joker, Little Fred, Clementine, Music, Amy, 
Mollie Morris, and Thomas Jefferson. No more brilliant collec- 
tion of trotters ever gathered together in any one season. There 



AMERICAN TROTTING HORSE. 39 

were, of course, other trotting meetings in different parts of the 
country, but the Septilateral, as the Grand Circuit was called, sur- 
passed all the other meetings in glory. 

Thomas Jefferson was a handsome black stallion, foaled in 1863, 
by Toronto Chief, out of the renowned ten-miler, Gipsy Queen. 
His handsome form, high quality -of finish, gameness and grit 
made "the black whirlwind of the East" a favorite everywhere. 
He won hard-fought races from such prominent horses as Smug- 
gler, George Wilkes, Mambrino Gift, Sensation, Shepherd T. 
Knapp, Commonwealth, William H. Allen, all good ones, and ob- 
tained a record of 2 m. 23 s 

At the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, in 1876, he 
received the highest award of merit. As a sire, Thomas Jefferson 
has been only moderately successful, the best of his get being 
probably the powerful chestnut gelding John S. Clark, who won 
some good races and obtained a record of 2 m. 19| s., though Joe 
Jefferson, the pacer (2 m. 19! s.), and Lizzie M. (2 m. 20 J s.) are 
rated higher by many good critics. The match, at Philadelphia, in 
1883, between the latter and Scotland, a half-bred son of the 
thoroughbred Bonnie Scotland, two-mile heats, for a purse of 
$2000, was considered a fair test of the staying powers of the 
thoroughbred blood in the trotter. It was hotly contested all 
through, Lizzie M. winning the first, second and fourth heats in 
4 m. 56 s., 5 m. 03 s., 4 m. 58£ s., and Scotland the third in 4 m. 
55| s. ; and since that time there has not been so much talk of the 
value of the thoroughbred cross. 

The Centennial year is noted for the wonderful achievements of 
Goldsmith Maid and Smuggler. The former, in her nineteenth 
year, trotted against time in 2m. lis., her previous record, and 
won six of the seven races she trotted that year, losing but one 
race — that at Cleveland, won by Smuggler. The latter won for 
himself a mighty name, as the only horse able to tear the laurels 
from the brow of the peerless Queen of the Trotting Turf. 

Smuggler was a brown stallion, standing 15 hands 3 inches high, 
with a blazed face. He was foaled near Columbus, O., in 1866, and 
was got by Blanco, a son of Iron's Cadmus, the sire of the famous 
pacing mare, Pocahontas, and his dam was a bay pacing mare brought 
from West Virginia. The dam of Blanco was by Blind Tuckahoe, 
a son of Herod's Tuckahoe. He consequently inherited a good share 
of pacing blood mixed with thoroughbred, and when he was taken 
to Kansas by his owner, in 1872, he was a confirmed pacer. He 
was there placed in the hands of Mr. Charles Marvin, and under 
his tuition developed into a most promising trotter. But as this 
change was only achieved by forcing him to carry shoes on his front 
feet of two pounds weight each, and at one time of even three pounds 
in his races, it is questioned whether the policy pursued was a wise 



40 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

one. If he had been permitted to go at his natural gait, Star 
Pointer's record to-day might have been made by Smuggler thirty 
years ago. In July, 1873, he showed a trial of a mile over the Olathe 
track in 2 m. 19f s., a performance which excited great sensation 
in trotting circles. He was then taken to New York, and at the 
Prospect Park Course was given a public trial of three heats, in 
2 m. 19f s., 2 m. 21£ s., and 2 m. 21 s., trotting the last half of 
the third mile in 1 m. 9 s. 

His first appearance in a race was at Buffalo, August 5, 1874, 
in a purse of $10,000, free for all stallions, where he was pitted 
against Thomas Jefferson, Mambrino Gift, and several others of the 
most noted trotting stallions of the continent. He won the first 
and second heats in 2 m. 22 £ s. and 2 m. 20 f s., wonderful time 
for a " green" horse, but becoming tired and discouraged by the 
excessive scoring, was last in the third heat and distanced in the 
fourth. Mambrino Gift won the third heat, but Jefferson lasting the 
longest won the last three heats and the race. On September 14, 
of the same year, he won the champion stallion race at Mystic 
Park, Boston, in three straight heats, in 2 m. 23 s., 2 m. 23 s., and 
2 m. 20 s., which was then the best stallion record, defeating Phil 
Sheridan, Henry "W. Genet, Commonwealth, Mambrino Gift, and 
Yermont Abdallah. In 1876 at Belmont Park, Philadelphia, July 
15, he beat Judge Fullerton, in 2 m. 17 i s., 2 m. 18 s., 2 m. 17 s., 
and 2 m. 20 s. ; the second heat being a dead heat between them. 

This splendid achievement elevated him to the highest pinnacle 
of fame as the champion stallion of the world, and with the laurels 
of this victory fresh on his brow, he entered the Circuit in the 
free-for-all purse at Cleveland, O., July 27. As this race is one of 
the most famous in trotting annals, we copy the following graphic 
description from the graceful pen of Hamilton Busbey, which ap- 
peared in the Turf, Field and Farm of August 4, 187G : 

" When the bell rang for the open-to-all horses to appear, a buzz 
of expectation was heard on all sides. It was known that Lula 
would not respond to the call, she having made an exhibition the 
previous day, besides she was not in the bloom of condition ; but 
Lucille Golddust was there to battle for the Babylon stable, and 
she was a mare of tried speed and bottom. The knowledge that 
Lula would not start steadied the quaking nerves of Doble, and 
he ceased to plead for a special purse and permission to withdraw. 
He thought that Goldsmith Maid would have a comparatively easy 
time in capturing first money, and his confidence made the old 
mare the favorite over the field. Smuggler was deemed an uncer- 
tain horse, and there was no eagerness to invest in pools on him. 
But the stallion was cheered almost as warmly as the Maid when 
he jogged slowly past the stand. Lucille Golddust, J udge Fullerton 



AMERICAN TROTTING HORSE. 41 

and Bodine were also received with applause. The great drivers 
of the country were behind the great horses of the country. Budd 
Doble pulled the lines over Goldsmith Maid - Charley Green stead- 
ied Lucille Golddust ; Pete Johnson controlled Bodine ; Charley 
Marvin watched over the fortunes of Smuggler; and Dan Mace 
was up behind Judge Fullerton, having come from New York for 
the express purpose of driving him in the race. Twice the horses 
came for the word, and twice they failed to get it. They were 
then ordered to score with Lucille Golddust, and succeeded in get- 
ting off. The Maid had the best of the start, and, quickly taking 
the pole from Judge Fullerton, gayly carried herself in the lead. 
It was where she was accustomed to be, and so she trotted in the 
best of spirits. Fullerton did not act well, and he brought up the 
rear rank the entire length of the course. Along the back-stretch 
Smuggler began to close a gap, terrific as the pace was. After 
passing the half mile he drew dangerously near the Maid, but it 
was noticed that he faltered a little. The cause was not then 
understood, but it was made plain when the patrol judge galloped 
up to the stand with a shoe in his hand which had been cast from 
the near fore foot. Around the turn the stallion pressed after the 
mare, and down the stretch he drove her at the top of her speed, 
the thousands giving vent to their enthusiasm by cheering and 
clapping hands. Smuggler had his nose at the Maid's tail when 
she went under the wire, in 2 m. 15 £ s. Bodine was a good third, 
his time being about 2 m. 17 s., and Lucille Golddust was fourth, 
Fullerton just inside of the flag. Smuggler's performance was an 
extraordinary one. He trotted for something like three-eighths of 
a mile with his equilibrium destroyed by the sudden withdrawal 
from an extreme lever point of a shoe weighing twenty-five ounces. 
Only once before had he cast a shoe in rapid work without break- 
ing, and that was in his exercise at Belmont Park. Keen judges 
are forced to admit that the stallion would have won the first heat 
in 2 m. 15 s. had no accident befallen him on Thursday. Prior to 
this season Smuggler carried a thirty-two ounce shoe on each of 
his fore feet, but now he seems to be steady under the reduced 
weight. The scoring in the second heat was a little more trouble- 
some than that in the first heat. Smuggler left his feet several 
times, and it looked as if he was going to disappoint his owner and 
trainer. On the fourth attempt the horses got away, the Maid in 
the lead. The stallion made one of his characteristic bad breaks 
around the turn, and all hope of his winning the heat was lost. 
Bodine and Fullerton also were unsteady. Lucille Golddust did 
good work, and she was second to the Maid when the latter went 
over the score in 2 m. 17? s. Smuggler finished* fifth, Marvin only 
trying to save his distance, Goldsmith Maid was distresed, but 



42 A SHORT HISTORY OP THE 

her friends were confident that her speed and steadiness would 
carry her safely through. It was almost dollars to cents that slid 
would win. The word was given to a good send off in the third 
heat. The Maid had the pole, which advantage she did not sur- 
render, although she went into the air around the turn. She was 
quickly caught, and Doble drove her carefully along the back- 
stretch, followed by Fullerton, who seemed to be content with the 
position of body-guard to her queenship. After passing the half- 
mile, Marvin urged Smuggler into a quicker pace, and the stallion 
was observed to pass Lucille Golddust, then Fullerton, and to swing 
into the home-stretch hard on the Maid's wheel. Doble used all 
his art to keep his mare going, but Marvin sat behind a locomotive 
and could not be shaken off. The stallion got on even terms with 
the Maid, and then drew ahead of her in the midst of the most 
tumultuous applause, beating her under the wire three-quarters of 
a length. The scene which followed is indescribable. An elec- 
trical wave swept over the vast assembly, and men swung their 
hats and shouted themselves hoarse, while the ladies snapped fans 
and parasols and bursted their kid gloves in the endeavor to get rid 
of the storm of emotion. The police vainly tried to keep the 
quarter-stretch clear. The multitude poured through the gates, 
and Smuggler returned to the stand through a narrow lane of 
humanity which closed as he advanced. Doble was ashy pale, and 
the great mare which had scored so many victories stood with 
trembling flanks and head down. Her attitude seemed to say, ' I 
have done my best, but am forced to resign the crown/ The 
judges hung out the time, 2 m. 16i s., and got no further in the 
announcement than that Smuggler had won the heat. The shouts 
of the thousands of frenzied people drowned all else. During the 
intermission the stallion was the object of the closest scrutiny. So 
great was the press that it was difficult to obtain breathing room. 
He appeared fresh, and ate eagerly of the small bunch of hay 
which was presented to him by his trainer after he had cooled out. 
It was manifest that the fast work had not destroyed his appetite. 
The betting now changed. It was seen that the Maid was tired, 
and her eager backers of an hour ago were anxious to hedge. In 
the second score of the fourth heat the judges observed that Smug- 
gler was in his stride, although behind, and so gave the word. In 
his anxiety to secure the pole Doble forced Goldsmith Maid into a 
run, and as Lucille Golddust quickly followed her, the stallion 
found his progress barred unless he pulled out and around them. 
Marvin decided to trail, and he kept in close pursuit of the two 
mares even after he had rounded into the home-stretch. Green 
would not give way with Lucille, and Doble pulled the Maid back 
just far enough to keep Marvin from slipping through with the 



AMERICAN TROTTING HORSE. 43 

stallion. The pocket was complete, and thought to be secure. A 
smile of triumph lighted Doble's face, and the crowd settled sullenly 
down to the belief that the race was over. Marvin was denounced 
as a fool for placing himself at a disadvantage, and imagination 
pictured just beyond the wire the crown of Goldsmith Maid with 
new laurel woven into it. But look ! By the ghosts of the de- 
parted ! Marvin has determined upon a bold experiment. He 
falls back, and to the right, with the ir tention of getting out 
around the pocket. Too late, too late ! is the hoarse whisper. 
Why, man, you have but one hundred and fifty yards in which to 
straighten "your horse and head the Maid, whose burst of speed has 
been held in reserve for just such an occasion as this ! Her gait 
is 2 m. 14 s., and you — well, you are simply mad ! The uncounted 
thousands held their breath. The stallion does not leave his feet, 
although pulled to a forty-five angle to the right, and the moment 
that his head is clear and the path open, he dashes forward with 
the speed of the staghound. It is more like flying than trotting. 
Doble hurries his mare into a break, but he cannot stop the dark 
shadow which flits by him. Smuggler goes over the score a winner 
of the heat by a neck, and the roar which comes from the grand 
stand and the quarter-stretch is simply deafening. As Marvin 
comes back with Smuggler to weigh, the ovation is even greater 
than that which he received in the preceding heat. Nothing like 
the burst of speed he had shown had ever before been seen on the 
track, and it may be that it will never be seen again. Marvin had 
two reasons for going into the pocket, in the first place, he 
thought that Green would pull out when the pinch came and let 
him through, and in the second place, he erroneously supposed that 
Doble would push the Maid down the stretch and leave him room 
to get out that way. It was bad judgment to get into the pocket, 
since, had the Maid won the heat, the race would have been over; 
but it must be admitted that Marvin acted not without a show of 
reason. In riding at the gait he was riding, a man does not have 
any extra time to mature his plans. The heat was literally won 
from the fire. It was only the weight of a hair which turned the 
scales from defeat to victory. Doble was more deeply moved by 
the unexpected result of the heat than by anything else which hap- 
pened in the race. His smile of triumph was turned in one brief 
instant to an expression of despair. The time of the heat was 
2 m. 19f s. Smuggler again cooled out well, nibbling eagerly at 
his bunch of hay, while the crowd massed around him. The Maid 
was more tired than ever, while Lucille Golddust showed no signs 
of distress. When the horses responded to the bell for the fifth 
heat it was evident that a combination had been formed against 
Smuggler. All worked against him. Lucille Golddust and Bodine 



44 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

worried him by repeated scorings, and when they excited him into 
a break and he grabbed the unfortunate shoe from the near fore 
foot, the hope began to rise that the star of the stallion had set. 
The shoe was put on, the delay giving the Maid time to get her 
second wind, when the scoring again commenced. Smuggler was 
repeatedly forced to a break, and for the third time in the race he 
grabbed off the near fore shoe. Misfortunes seemed to be gather- 
ing thickly around him, and the partisans of the Maid wore the 
old jaunty air of confidence. Before replacing the shoe, Colonel 
Russell had it shortened at the heel. It was a new shoe, and one 
adopted by Marvin against the judgment of Russell. The shell of 
the foot was pretty badly splintered by the triple accident, but the 
stallion was not rendered lame. As much as an hour was wasted 
by the scoring and the shoeing of Smuggler, which brought all the 
horses to the post looking fresh. Smuggler had the worst of it, 
as he was the only one which had not enjoyed an unbroken rest- 
Finally the word was given for the fifth heat. Fullerton went to 
the front like a flash of light, trotting without skip to the quarter 
pole in 33 s. Smuggler overhauled him near the half-mile, and 
from there home was never headed. The Maid worked up to 
second position down the home-stretch, the stallion winning the 
heat in 2 m. 17^ s., and the hardest-fought race ever seen in the 
world. The evening shadows had now thickened, and as the great 
crowd had shouted itself weak and hoarse, it passed slowly through 
the gates and drove in a subdued manner home/' 

In the following week, at Buffalo, he was so badly used up from 
the effects of his bruising race at Cleveland, that he was in no con- 
dition to trot, and was defeated by the Maid in the fastest three 
consecutive heats ever trotted; time, 2 m. 16 s., 2 m. 15^ s., and 
2 m. 15 s. At Rochester the Maid failed to put in an appearance, 
and Smuggler won in three straight heats, 2 m. 15f s., 2 m. 18 s , 
and 2 m. 19 J s. On August 24, at Poughkeepsie, he was distanced 
in the first heat; and on September 1, at Hartford, he trotted against 
Goldsmith Maid, Judge Fullerton, and Bodine, and won the first two 
heats in 2 m. 15 i s. and 2 m. 17 s. In the second heat he was very 
far behind at the start, and the judges were much blamed in con- 
sequence. Notwithstanding this, he closed up the gap, and made 
a dead heat with the Maid in 2 m. 16f s. Goldsmith Maid then 
took the last three and the race in 2 m. 17? s., 2 m. 18 s., and 
2 m. 19 s., Smuggler pushing her closely in them all. At Spring- 
field" he trotted in the same company, but did not win a single 
heat. Later in the season he trotted two races against the mam- 
moth trotter Great Eastern, but acting badly, he lost them both. 
He was then sent to the stud, where he bids fair to become a great 
success. 



AMERICAN TROTTING HORSE. 45 

Barus then took up the crown which Goldsmith Maid had laid 
down, and right regally he wore it. He is a long-striding, ungainly- 
looking bay gelding, sixteen hands high, with a blaze face and 
white ankles. The old adage, "blood will tell," does not hold 
good in his case, for the pedigree of his sire is entirely unknown, 
although his owner, Mr. R. B. Conklin, and Mr. George Wilkes, 
the editor and proprietor of the Spirit of the Times, have used 
every endeavor to trace it. All that is known is that Conklin's 
Abdallah, for so the sire of Barus is called, before his purchase 
by Mr. Conklin, performed the ignoble duty of drawing a fish-cart 
for a fish-dealer in Fulton Market, New York. Conklin's Abdallah 
is the sire of some twenty other horses besides Barus, but the best 
of them are only fair roadsters. The dam of Barus was by Tele- 
graph, her dam being a Black Hawk mare, and it is probable that 
she is the source of his wonderful speed. 

Barus first appeared on the turf at the Suffolk County Fair, at 
Biverhead, in the fall of 1871, where he won the four-year old 
stakes in three straight heats, the best of which was in 2 m. 42 J s. 
In 1874 he trotted six races, winning four of them, and obtaining a 
record of 2 m. 28| s. The next year he was kept busily at work. 
He commenced the season at Grand Bapids, Mich , June 9, where 
Mollie Morris beat him, Gen. Grant and Molsey being also in the race. 
On the 17th Lady Mac beat him at South Bend, Indiana. On July 
7, at Detroit, Giafton defeated him in straight heats. Two weeks 
later, at Sandusky, the entrees for the Grand Circuit having closed, 
he was allowed to go to the front, and scored his first win, beating 
a field of three in slow time. He then entered the Grand Circuit in 
the 2 m. 27 s. class at Cleveland, July 30, winning a red-hot race 
from the little Mollie Morris (who won the first two heats), Carrie 
(who took the third), and four others, in 2 m. 23J s., 2 m. 25£ s., 
2 m. 24| s., 2 m. 24 J s., 2 m. 23i s., 2 m. 26 1 s.; but at Buffalo, 
the following week, Mollie Morris reversed the verdict, beating him 
in three straight heats. At Bochester, Utica, and Hartford he won 
easily, reducing his record to 2 m. 20f s. After this he trotted six 
races, but seemed to be somewhat off, winning but two of them, 
being beaten by Lady Maud twice, and by Kansas Chief and Sensa- 
tion each once. In 1876 he had his own way in the 2 m. 20 s. 
class of the Septilateral Circuit, excepting at Cleveland, where May 
Queen beat him, winning the six remaining races in the easiest 
manner, without reducing his record, though it was evident he 
could trot low down in the " teens" whenever he chose to do so, and 
at Fleetwood Park, N. Y., October 26, he won a fast race, trotting 
the fifth heat in 2 m. 20 s., and closed the season with this record 
against him. Late in the fall he was taken to California, and his 
first races in 1877 were against the peerless Goldsmith Maid, who 



46 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

was also wintering there, and although she beat him five times out of 
six, he lapped her out in 2 m. 14 J s. at Chico, and beat her at San 
Francisco, May 2G, when she was out of condition, lowering his record 
to 2 m. 19^ s. He also won races from Sam Purdy and Bodine. 
After the race with Goldsmith Maid he came East, and won every 
race he started in. At Cleveland, Buffalo, Rochester, Utica, Hart- 
ford, Long Branch, New York, Cleveland again, Columbus, and 
Cincinnati, it was the same story. He always won, and from such 
horses as Hopeful, Great Eastern, Lucille Golddust, Cozette, and 
Albemarle. His record was now 2 m. 16 s., and it was conceded 
that there was not a horse on the turf that could make him extend 
himself; and so, in 1878, he was confined to special speed purses 
generally, to beat Goldsmith Maid's famous record of 2 m. 14 s. 
At East Saginaw, Mich., he trotted a mile in 2 m. 14 J s., without 
a break or skip. At Cincinnati, July 4, he made the fastest per- 
formance over a half-mile track, 2 m. 17 s. At Cleveland he trotted 
in 2 m. 141 s., 2 m. 15 s., and 2 m. 14 s., and at Buffalo, August 
3, 1878, he eclipsed all previous records and trotted a mile in 2 m. 
13 % s. This great event is admirably described by an eye witness, 
Mr. Hamilton Busbey of the Turf, Field and Farm. 

" The last event on the card was the fight of Rarus against old 
Father Time. The track was fast, although a trifle hard. Bets 
were freely made that 2 m. 14 s. would be beaten. The first trial 
was not encouraging. Rarus went to the quarter in 35 J s., to the 
half in 1 m. 9f s., to the third quarter in 1 m. 43 s., and came 
home in 2 m. 17 s. In the second trial he went to the quarter in 
33J s., and made a very bad break. Splan pulled up and jogged 
around in 2 m. 50 s. As he approached the wire he nodded for 
the word, and Mr. Hamlin shouted ' Go.' The horse left his feet 
on the turn, and Splan again pulled up. It began to look badly for 
those who had backed the horse against time. Rarus was halted 
and sponged, and then the discovery was made that he was hitched 
too short. The buckles were changed and he was ready for a new 
trial. During the pause a crowd gathered in front of the judges' 
stand and clamored for a decision. They insisted that those who 
had backed time in the second heat had won. The judges declined 
to express any opinion in the matter, but quietly wrote 2 m. 50 s. 
under 2 m. 17 s. on the blackboard, and turned it outward. Splan 
then came to the wire the fourth time for the word. Rarus went 
off level, and when he passed the quarter in 33J s., and moved 
steadily forward, the hope took root that he would eclipse all former 
efforts. He was at the half-mile pole in 1 m. 5f s., a winning pace, 
but the question was, could he keep up the stride. The critical 
few shook their heads as if to say the half is too fast for the horse 
to finish well. Smoothly,, evenly, without the least jar or friction, 



AMERICAN TROTTING HORSE. 4? 

the tall and gallant bay strode to the three-quarter pole, which he 
reached in 1 m. 38 J s. l By Jove ! he will beat the Maid's time/ 
was the exclamation which came from all sides. There was a 
strange fascination in watching the horse and listening to the tick 
of the watch. Time is a relentless old fellow, and tolerates no mis- 
takes. Every one knew that Rarus could not afford to trip or 
slacken his pace. In order to beat the long registering hand of the 
watch to the fourteenth second mark after two circuits of the dial, 
it was necessary for him to preserve a stroke and to show a courage 
which no horse before him had ever shown. Grandly, stoutly, he 
came forward, Splan sitting well poised in the sulky, and watching 
the movement of his ears with his keen black eyes. After passing 
the distance stand, the whip was gently laid on the back of the 
horse, and as he neared the wire six thousand people rose to their 
feet and held their breath. Under the wire Rarus shot, and the 
hands of the watches stopped short — 2 m. 13 s. \ no, 2 m. 13i s., 
say the judges, and cheer after cheer rolls over the track. The 
horse and driver received a perfect ovation when they returned to 
weigh, and it was with difficulty that Splan could make his way 
through the crowd and up into the judges' stand. When he reached 
the steps, he cleared them at three bounds, and, after hand-shaking, 
was led to the rail and presented with a handsome basket of flowers 
by President Bush. No words were spoken. It would have been 
useless to have attempted speech-making in the presence of the 
crowd which filled the quarter-stretch, and which made the ground 
shake with its shouts. The scene is indescribable. While Splan 
was blushing and bowing his acknowledgments to the applauding 
thousands, Rarus was being unharnessed, and he looked on with 
dazed eye, quivering nostril and trembling flank. He had made a 
new mark in the annals of the turf, had wiped out the record of 
Goldsmith Maid, which had headed the list for so many years, and 
modesty well became him in the hour of his brilliant success. It 
was a proud day for Buffalo Park, and those who were present will 
never forget the uproar caused by the beating of 2 m. 14 s. Had 
Splan not gone to the half quite so fast, it is contended by a good 
many that he would have marked below 2 m. 13 s., and I incline 
to the correctness of this view." 

At Rochester and Utica he did not perform up to his reputation, 
but at Hartford, August 23, in the famous duel with Edwin 
Forrest, he trotted in 2 m. 15 s., 2 m. 13J s., and 2 m. 13f s., the 
fastest three heats on record. The fame of this exploit extended 
over the country, and henceforth the Rarus days were the big days 
of all the meetings at which he appeared during 1878 and 1879, 
and with little effort he could earn from two to three thousand dol- 
lars a week from the opening of the trotting season to its close. 



48 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

His last race was at Utica, August 28, 1879, where he beat Hope- 
ful in 2 m. 17i s., 2 m. 16 J s., and 2 m. 16 s. Mr. Robert Bonner 
then purchased him for $36,000. 

His driver, John Splan, says: "I never saw any one that he 
seemed very fond of, except Mr. Conklin, Dave and the dog Jimmy, 
without some mention of whom no history of Rarus would be complete. 
This dog was a Scotch terrier that was presented to uiein San Fran- 
cisco by a fireman when he was a youngster of about two months. 
I took him to the track and gave him to Dave, who advised that 
he be put in Rarus's stable. I cautioned Dave about the pup, as I 
had seen Rarus make the fur fly from one or two dogs, and told 
him that he might not have any dog, unless he put him in a safe 
place. In a few days I asked about him, and he told me that 
Rarus and the dog had got to be great friends. That appeared 
rather strange to me, as, while I had always treated Rarus very 
kindly, he was never disposed to make friends with me. In ap- 
pearance this dog was a small, wiry-haired terrier, weighing about 
fifteen pounds, and possessed of almost human intelligence. The 
admiration and love that this dog and horse had for each other 
equalled anything that I have ever seen in the human family. 

" Not only were they extremely fond of each other, but they 
showed their affection plainly as did ever a man for a woman. 
We never took any pains to teach the dog anything about the 
horse. Everything he knew came to him by his own patience. 
From the time I took him to the stable a pup, until I sold 
Rarus, they were never separated an hour. We once left the 
dog in the stall while we took the horse to the blacksmith shop, 
and when we came back we found he had made havoc with every- 
thing there was in there, trying to get out, while the horse, during 
the entire journey, was uneasy, restless, and in general acted as 
bad as the dog did. Dave remarked that he thought that we 
had better keep the horse and dog together after that. When 
Rarus went to the track to work or trot, the dog would follow 
Dave around and sit by the gate at his side, watching Rarus 
with as much interest as Dave did. When the horse returned 
to the stable after a heat, and was unchecked, the dog would 
walk up and climb up on his forward legs, and kiss him, the horse 
always bending his head down to receive his caress. In the 
stable, after work was over, Jim and the horse would often frolic 
like two boys. If the horse laid down, Jim would climb on his 
back, and in that way soon learned to ride him, and whenever I 
led Rarus out to show him to the public, Jim invariably knew 
what it meant, and enhanced the value of the performance by the 
manner in which he would get on the horse's back. On these occa- 
sions, the horse was shown to halter, and Jimmy, who had learned 



AMERICAN TROTTING HORSE. 49 

to distinguish such events from those in which the sulky was used, 
would follow Dave and Rarus out on the quarter stretch ; and then, 
when the halt was made in front of the grand stand, Dave would 
stoop down, and in a flash Jimmy would jump on his back, run up 
his shoulder, from there leap on the horse's hack, and there he 
would stand, his head high in the air, and his tail out stiff behind, 
barking furiously at the people. He seemed to know that he w-ts 
as much a part of the show as the horse, and apparently took 
great delight in attracting attention to himself. I had sever;* 
tempting offers for Jim in the way of cash, but such a thing as' 
parting with him never entered my mind. When Rarus was sold 
to Mr. Bonner, Jimmy was not included in the bill of sale, but I 
felt that liarus belonged to Jimmy and Jimmy to Rarus. After 
they both became the property of Mr. Bonner, the affection of the 
dog and the horse for each other never abated, and this was well 
illustrated on one occasion. In Mr. Bonner's down-town stable 
was a bull terrier, a rather savage fellow, who had the run of the 
place, and naturally wanted to be boss. Jimmy, who was brave to 
a fault, attacked the bull-terrier one day, and the result was that 
he was soon knocked out. When his yelps reached Rarus, whose 
stall was adjacent, the old horse made a break for the centre of 
the barn, and had he not been restrained, would have made short 
work of the bull-dog. Mr. Bonner was much impressed with this 
incident, and afterward related it to the writer as evidence of how 
strong the bond of affection between these two animals was." 

One bright, sunny day in 1873, Mr. James Galway, who owned 
a half-mile track at the beautiful village of Goshen, in Orange 
County, N. Y., was attracted by the appearance of a handsome bay 
colt, who spun around the track at a rapid gait. The track, when 
not wanted for the regular races, was generously thrown open to any 
of the neighboring farmers or village horsemen who wished to try 
the mettle of their horses, and, being kept in good condition, was 
frequented daily by many who imagined they were the happy pos- 
sessors of future Dexters or Edwin Forrests. The driver of the 
colt in question was a stranger, old and shabby, and the wagon and 
harness were in keeping with the driver's appearance; but the 
horse's action was so good and his speed so evident, that Mr. Galway 
hailed the stranger and questioned him about the breeding of the 
colt. This could not but bo satisfactory, for royal blood coursed 
through his veins. He was foaled in 1869, his sire being Volunteer 
and his dam a daughter of Coming's Harry Clay. The farmer 
drove him twice round the track, and Mr. Galway quickly consum- 
mated the bargain, and paid the owner the price asked, $600. He 
made his debut at Poughkeepsie August 4, 1875. Great Eastern, 
the Goliah of the turf, won the first heat in 2 m. 30 s., with St 
4 



50 A SHORT IITSTORY OF THE 

Julien a close second. St. Julien then cut loose and won the 
three remaining heats and the race in 2 m. 30 s., 2 m. 26i s., 
and 2 m. 30f s. Three days later at the same place he started 
in the 2 m. 34 s. class, winning the first, second, and fourth 
heats in 2 m. 26£ s., 2 m. 30 s., and 2 m. 26| s., Tom Moore, 
a young stallion by Jupiter Abdallah, taking the second heat 
in 2 m. 28 s. He then went to Hampden Park, Springfield, 
Mass., where on the first day of the meeting he won the 2 m. 38 s. 
purse easily in straight heats, best time 2 m. 28 s. Three days 
later at the same place he met Nerea, John W. Hall, Unknown, 
Frank Munson, Sir William Wallace, Queen, and Lady Morrison 
in the 2 m. 34 s. class, and a desperate struggle ensued. Nerea 
was the favorite at two to one over St. Julien, and justified the 
partiality of her friends by winning the first heat in 2 m. 23? s., 
by a head, with St. Julien second and Unknown third. The latter 
then won the second heat in precisely the same time, St. Julien 
again coming in second. St. Julien now went to the front and 
won the three remaining heats and the race in 2 m. 22? s., 2 m. 
26 i s., and 2 m. 27 s. At Hartford, August 31, he defeated a 
good field in straight heats in 2 m. 28J s., 2 m. 26J s., and 2 m. 
26J s., and two days later at the same meeting he appeared for the 
sixth and last time that year, winning as he pleased from Great 
Eastern, Sister, and Goldfinder in straight heats in 2 m. 25f s , 
2 m. 23f s., and 2 m. 24? s. This was his last engagement that 
season. His career had been a brief one, but exceptionally brilliant. 
He had met some of the fastest and most promising trotters then 
on the turf, and not a single defeat dimmed the glory of his achieve- 
ments. His winnings in purses alone in that brief campaign of 
less than a month amounted to $8400, and consequently when he 
passed into the hands of Mr. Orrin A. Hickok, the skillful Cali- 
fornia driver, for the princely sum of $20,000, good judges did not 
consider the price extravagant. His career on the Pacific slope 
was at first a disappointment to his new owners. He trotted but 
one race the next year at San Francisco, September 2, 1876, in a 
match for $10,000, defeating Dan Voorhees, who won the first 
heat, in 2 m. 26J s., 2 m. 25| s., 2 m. 30£ s., and 2 m. 29f s., by 
no means remarkable time for such a phenomenon as he was claimed 
to be. He did not trot again that year, nor in 1877, nor in 1878, 
and when on the 13th of September, 1879, he appeared as one of 
the contestants for the Free-for-all Purse at Sacramento, it was like 
a resurrection from the dead. Nutwood won a hard-fought race of 
five heats, the best of which was 2 m. 20 s. St. Julien made such 
an inglorious showing, being absolutely last in the first two heats 
and having the distance flag dropped in his face in the third, that 
when at Stockton one week later he defeated Graves and Nutwood 



AMERICAN TROTTING HORSE. 51 

in 2 m. 17 s., m. s., 2 m. 18 J s., and 2 m. 24 s., the public 
could hardly realize that he was at last coming back to his time, 
and that the new star was to shine with a brighter light than any 
of its predecessors. In this race Graves won the second heat, but 
the time was declared no record. The owners of St. Julien felt 
assured that he could do better than this, and when Gen. Grant 
had returned from his tour round the world, and California was 
lavishing her honors upon him, they, too, thought that they would 
show the ex-President a faster trotting horse than any he had seen 
in his travels, and accordingly an exhibition was arranged for his 
benefit at Oakland Park, San Francisco, October 25, and St. 
Julien entered for a purse of $800 conditioned upon his beating 
Rarus' famous record of 2 m. 13£ s. The result is told in the 
following abstract from the San Francisco Call of the next day : 

" When the horses were called, General Grant and Senator 
Sharon accompanied the president of the association, Dr. E. H. 
Pardee, to the judges' stand. The great event of the day was the 
attempt of St. Julien, with a running mate, to beat the best trotting 
record for a purse of $800. The track was in a very favorable 
coudition for fast time. After a short delay St. Julien passed 
through the gate and proceeded leisurely down the track to take a 
little preparatory exercise previous to the trial in two dashes to 
eclipse 2 m. 13 \ s., the record of Rarus, the king of the trotting 
turf. The horse looked wonderfully fit and strong, and moved 
with such ease and freedom that those who had seen him make a 
mile at Stockton, and do even faster time at San Jose, were con- 
fident that he would lower that record, but were too skeptical to 
imagine that the name of St. Julien would be flashed last night all 
through the land with 2 m. 12f s. to his credit. There was no 
betting on the event, but bets were freely offered at $50 to $25 
that, not even in honor of the presence of General Grant, would 
the record of Rarus be beaten. At the second attempt the bay 
gelding, disdaining the aid of the running mate, came down to the 
score at a grand swinging gait, and Hickok nodding assent, the 
bell sounded and St. Julien sped along on his first trial, and hun- 
dreds of watches were set clicking to beat time with his own 
miniature weapons. General Grant stood in the corner of the 
grand stand nearest the distance pcle, and followed with an intense 
gaze the fleeting animal as he passed around the lower turn, and 
when he reached the quarter mile in 33 s., or at a 2 m. 12 s. gait, 
there was a perceptible movement of surprise that was intensified 
as the noble horse still increased his stride and reached the half in 
I'm. 5£ s., or the second quarter at the rate of 2 m. 9 s. There 
was a subdued murmur, and the spectators became seemingly im- 
bued with the idea of witnessing a grand performance as St. Julien 



52 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

sped on his way and reached the three-quarter pole in 1 m. 40 s., 
or the third quarter at the rate of 2 m. 19 s., but when well into 
the home-stretch he again increased his stride, and, urged to his 
utmost, he came along with a magnificent stride, and passed under 
the wire in the unprecedented time of 2 m. 12f s. without the 
slightest skip or break, the last quarter being made at the superb 
'gait of 2 m. 11 s. to the mile. The declaration of the record was 
received with great applause, in which the General joined heartily, 
and the gallant horse and his skillful driver were received with 
rousing cheers as the latter returned to dismount and to show by 
the scales one pound overweight. General Grant was so delighted 
with the achievement that he went round to St. Julien's stables 
between the heats of the 2 m. 29 s. trot to look the horse over and 
to congratulate Mr. Hickok." 

Thus closed the season of 1879 in a sunset of glory, and there 
seemed little prospect that the record just made would be surpassed 
for years to come, unless St. Julien himself should do it. In the 
spring of 1880 his owner and trainer, Mr. Hickok, brought the 
champion east, and at Detroit and Ionia he gave exhibition trots 
preparatory to entering the Grand Circuit. At Chicago, July 22, 
he easily defeated Darby and Hopeful in straight heats ip, 2 m. 
17f s., 2 m. 18£ s., 2 m. 16 1 s., and at Cleveland, the following week, 
he beat the same horses and Trinket and Great Eastern in 2 m. 
15f s., 2 m. 18| s., and 2 m. 17i s. At Buffalo Trinket dropped 
out, but the story was still the same, St. Julien winning as he 
liked in 2 m. 16f s., 2 m. 16f s., 2 m. 15? s. But now the 
shadow of a greater competitor than any he had yet met came 
across his path, and at Rochester, August 12, he and Maud S. 
fought their famous duel, each trotting against time to beat St. 
Julien's California record, and each achieving the same record of 
2 m. llf s. At Springfield he gave Darby and Hopeful another 
drubbing, and at Hartford, August 27, he reached the climax of 
his fame, and lowered his record to 2 m. Ill s. He then started 
for his home in the far west, stopping on the way at Minneapolis, 
where he vainly endeavored to beat his record. He wintered well, 
and when, in the spring of 1881, he again eame east, high antici- 
pations of future conquests were entertained by expectant horsemen, 
but he caught a severe cold at the very outset and never after- 
ward did anything worthy of note, and died in California in the 
autumn of 1894 — the horse of a day ! 

France's Alexander, a handsome black stallion, sixteen hands 
high, by Ben Patchen, a grandson of Flora Temple's famous com- 
petitor, dam by Canada Jack, a grandson of old St. Lawrence, was 
foaled in 1874. As a five-year-old, he started six times without 
success, having the misfortune to be pitted against Robert Mc- 
Gregor, a magnificent chestnut, grandson of Alexander's Abdallah, 



AMERICAN TROTTING HORSE. 53 

who was well nigh invincible that year. The next year he only 
won two out of the five races in which he started, but in 1881 he 
redeemed himself, and placed himself at the head of trotting 
stallions. He commenced the season by beating, at Point Breeze 
Park, Philadelphia, May 17, his old opponent, Robert McGregor, 
who won the second heat, Jersey Boy, as game a little trotter as 
ever trod the local tracks, Silverton, Scotland, Edwin Thorne and 
Hambletonian Mambrino. At Belmont Park the following week 
he defeated Jersey Boy, Edwin Thorne, Voltaire, Kentucky 
Wilkes and Irene in straight heats. He then went to Boston, 
where he won two races easily, and then to Providence, where he 
showed his heels to Jersey Boy, Sheridan, Wizz and Banquo, 
whose ghost did not trouble him that day. With this unbroken 
series of victories, he went to Rochester, N. Y., and on July 4 
trotted, in the $10,000 purse for stallions, the race of his life. 
He won the first heat in 2 m. 19s., and was second to Robert 
McGregor in the next two in 2 m. 19 s., 2 m. 18| s. ; the fourth heat 
he won in 2 m. 19is. Each of the leading horses had now won 
two heats, and every one expected that the next heat would finish 
the race, but the crafty Hickok brought up Santa Claus, who, 
being comparatively fresh, won the fifth and sixth heats in 2 m. 
21s., 2 m. 23 s., and fully expected to win the race. Hannis, 
Wedgewood, Bonesetter and Monroe Chief were sent to the stables 
for not winning one heat in five, and as the three game but tired 
leaders came up for the seventh time the excitement was intense. 
Alexander won the heat and the race in 2 m. 25£ s., with Santa 
Claus second and Robert McGregor third, and the vast audience 
went home hoarse with the cheering. Though he won lasting 
glory from this hard race, it was some time before he was himself 
again, and in the following year, just as he was preparing for a new 
campaign, he was suddenly withdrawn from the turf and sent to 
Kentucky to fill the place which George Wilkes' lamented death 
had left vacant. He was exported to Austria in 1885, and trotted 
some good races there. As a sire, neither in this country nor in 
Europe, has he proved nearly as successful as his old antagonist, 
Robert McGregor, who has now over fourscore trotters and pacers 
within the magic circle, of which thirty-one have a record of less 
than 2 m. 20 s., and that most promising trotter, the chestnut stal- 
lion Cresceus has a three-year-old record of 2 m. Hi s., and a 
seven-year-old stallion championship of 2.02£. 

The little gray gelding Hopeful, the pride of Dan Mace's heart, 
was a very fast horse. He was foaled in Maine in 1866, and 
was sired by Godfrey's Patchen, a son of Flora Temple's famous 
competitor, and his dam was a gray mare by the Bridham horse, 
who is supposed to have been an immediate descendant of Win- 
throp Messenger. He first appeared on the turf at Springfield, 



54 A SHORT HISTORY OP THE 

August 25, 1873, but only finished fourth in a field of five. He 
then essayed his fortunes in four races, winning two of them and a 
record of 2 m. 25 s. In 1874 he trotted seven races, winning five, 
being beaten only by Bodine, the fast son of Volunteer, and lowered 
his record to 2 m. 21 s. At Fleetwood Park, May 22, 1875, 
Kansas Chief beat him. He now lay by until August 5, when he 
appeared at Poughkeepsie in the 2 m. 18 s. class, defeating Lady 
Maud, Judge Fullerton, who took the first heat, Huntress and two ' 
others, in 2 m. 21 s., 2 m. 22f s., 2 m. 28 s., and 2 m. 28 s. At 
Hampden Park, three weeks later, he beat Lady Maud and Kansas 
Chief in 2 m. 28 s., 2 m. 24 s., and 2 m. 20 s., and on the last day 
of that month, at Hartford, he beat Lady Maud, Lucille Golddust, 
and Henry, in 2 m. 18? s., 2 m. 22 £ s., and 2 m. 23J s., Lady 
Maud taking the third and fourth in 2 m. 19 s. and 2 m. 20 J s., 
and at the same place, September 3, he defeated American Girl in 
three straight heats in 2 m. 17 I s., 2 m. 181 s., and 2 m. 181 s. 
Great as the achievement was, Dan Mace, in his " Experience with 
Trotters," published in the Spirit of the Times, says, " On that day 
Hopeful could have trotted a mile in 2 m. 12 s., although his best 
time was only 2 m. 17 i s. I never let loose of his head, never asked 
him to go, and never wanted him to go ; and in no place in that 
mile did he go as fast as he could. ... I don't think there is a 
horse alive that can out-trot him now; not a horse on the turf that 
can outspeed him." In 1876, owing to a foot difficulty, he was 
unable to trot, but, June, 1877, at Fleetwood Park, he started in 
the Free-for-all Purse, with Judge Fullerton, Albemarle, and Ade- 
laide, and astonished his owner, driver, and everybody else, by his 
performance, winning the first heat in 2 m. 18 J s., by three-quar- 
ters of a second the fastest mile ever trotted on the track, and 
taking the race handily without a skip, in three heats — time, 2 m. 
18? s., 2 m. 20 s., and 2 m. 21 s. At Boston, July 5, he beat 
Great Eastern in 2 m. 22 s., 2 m. 20£ s., 2 m. 18| s., and 2 m. 
19 h s., Great Eastern taking the second heat. He next appeared 
in the Grand Circuit at Springfield, Mass., July 13, where he beat 
Judge Fullerton for the Free-for-all Purse, then back to Boston, 
where, July 23, he met the great. Smuggler and defeated him in 
straight heats, the fastest of which was 2 m. 19 i s. He did not 
start at Cleveland, Buffalo, or Bochester, but at Utica, August 17, 
he suffered defeat from Lucille Golddust, who had to trot in 2 m. 
17£ s., 2 m. 18f s.,and 2 m. 18| s. to beat him; but at Poughkeepsie 
he regained his laurels, defeating Lucille Golddust and Nettie after 
a hard-fought race of five heats. At Hartford, Long Branch, Fleet- 
wood Park, and Cleveland, Barus beat him, and he went into win- 
ter quarters quite under a cloud. In 1878 he went through the 
Michigan Circuit with success, was beaten by Great Eastern at 



AMERICAN TROTTING HORSE. 55 

Toledo in slow time, and entered the Grand Circuit at Cleveland, 
July 25, where he beat Proteine, Great Eastern, Nettie, and Cozette 
in the wonderful time of 2 m. 17i s., 2 m. 15f s. and 2 m. 15 J s., 
and at Buffalo, Rochester, Utica, and Hartford, he was alike 
triumphant, and at Minneapolis, September 6, he attained the 
height of his glory by trotting a mile in 2 m. 14f s. At Kansas 
City, September 20, he beat Great Eastern in straight heats, and 
in the following week at Quincy, 111., he beat him and Scott's 
Thomas. At St. Louis, October 3, he trotted against time in 2 m. 
15f s., 2 m. 15 s., and 2 m. 15£ s. At Chicago, October 10, a 
handicap was devised, Hopeful to go in harness against Rarus to 
wagon and Great Eastern under the saddle. The little gray geld- 
ing won in 2 m. 17£ s., 2 m. 17 s., and 2 m. 16 s., and two days 
after at the same meeting trotted against time, to wagon, in 2 m. 
16J s., 2 m. 17 s., and 2 m. 17 s., which is the best wagon time on 
record. He wound up this memorable year at x\lbany, N. Y., 
winning the special purse, best time 2 m. 20£ s. He wintered at 
Point Breeze Park, Philadelphia, and came out in fine fettle for 
the season of 1879. At Suffolk Park, May 16, he trotted against 
time in 2 m. 18 s., wonderful time for so early in the season. 
Over the Ambler half-mile track, May 22, he trotted in 2 m. 19f 
s., 2 m. 19 s., and 2 m. 22 i s., the three fastest heats ever trotted 
over a half-mile track in Pennsylvania. At Belmont the following 
week he trotted against time in 2 m. 21 s., 2 m 17i s., and 2 m. 
17J s., and then, taking Horace Greeley's famous advice to " go 
West/' he started for Chicago, stopping at Butler and Bradford, 
in the western part of Pennsylvania, at which he trotted in 2 m. 
18f s. and 2 m. 19f s. respectively, winning good purses at both 
places. At Chicago his good fortune left him, and in his endeavor 
to beat Goldsmith Maid's famous record, 2 m. 18f s. was the best 
he could accomplish. From this time until late in the fall he was 
out of condition and unable to do anything worthy of his fame. 
Rarus beat him easily at Chicago, Cleveland, and Utica in straight 
heats. But the gray was recovering some of his old form, and 
an immense crowd assembled at Hartford to see the meeting between 
the two flyers; but Rarus was sold to Mr. Bonner just before the 
race and did not make his appearance, and in order that the spec- 
tators might not be disappointed, a race was improvised with the 
wonderful blind pacer Sleepy Tom, who had paced a mile at Chicago, 
July 25, 1879, in 2 m. 12i s. \ but the pacer was of no account 
that day, and Hopeful won easily. At Minneapolis, September 5, 
he beat the gray pacer Lucy, and at Quincy, 111., he beat her again, 
the time at the latter place being 2 m. 16 \ s., 2 m. 17 \ s., 2 m. 17 s., 
and 2 m. 181 s. At Cedar Rapids he trotted against time, but 
could do no better than 2 m. 23 \ s., and with this failure he closed 
his labors for the season. 



56 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

Iii Scribner' > s Magazine for June, 1896, is an engraving entitled 
" The Old Age of the Trotter Edwin Forrest (twenty-four years 
old, record 2: 18) and Beaver Dam (sixteen years old). From a 
photograph made at Mr. Bonner's Tarrytown farm in August, 
1895," and yet it does not seem so long ago that horsemen hailed 
this same Edwin Forrest, who is depicted as drawing a lawn-mower, 
as the coming champion of the American trotting turf. He was a rich 
bay gelding, 16 hands high, was foaled in Cass county, Missouri, 
in 1871. His sire was a horse called Ned Forrest, Jr., and his 
dam a granddaughter of the thoroughbred Leviathan. Taken to 
Kentucky when young, he trotted his first race there in 1875. In 
1877 he won two races at Madison, Ind., beating Proteine, Kitty 
Bates, and Andy Meshon, while in a race which he lost at Lexing- 
ton, Ky., he attained a record of 2 m. 251 s. In 1878 he passed 
into the hands of Gus Glidden, and entered the Michigan Circuit 
in the spring, but being kept for the Grand Circuit he was not 
allowed to win for fear of lowering his record. At Toledo, however, 
the entries to the Grand Circuit being completed, he was given his 
head and won in straight heats, the fastest of which was 2 m. 23 s. 
, When the bell rang for the 2 m. 24 s. class at Cleveland, July 
24, 1878, and Trampoline, Darby, Edward, Dick Moore, Alley, and 
Edwin Forrest answered the summons, the spectators knew that 
there would be a good race, but few expected that Edwin Forrest, 
after breaking a^d losing the first heat to Edward, would win the 
last three heats in the quick time of 2 m. 19£ s., 2 m. 20 J s., and 
2 m. 18 J s., the last heat being won in a jog. At Buffalo he won 
from the same field in 2 m. 20 s., 2 m. 20J s., and 2 m. 20f s. F 
and at Rochester he won again in quick time. In all these races 
his superiority over his opponents was so evident that at Utica a con- 
spiracy was formed by the owners and drivers of the various horses 
in the race, Forrest's driver being one of them, to make him a 
great favorite in the betting, and then pull him so as to lose the 
race. This disgraceful job succeeded only too well, and the speedy 
Edward was the winner; and though the National Association 
months afterwards ferreted out and punished the originators and 
abettors of the fraud, it will be years before the turf recovers from 
the wounds it then received at the hands of its professing friends. 
In the fourth heat of that race he came from the rear at the last 
with a burst of speed that amazed all beholders, and caused Charley 
Green to make a dead rush for his owner and secure the refusal of 
him at $16,000, within five minutes. 

The real purchaser was Mr. Robert Bonner, of New York. Not 
wishing to endanger the reputation of the horse until he should 
become familiarized with his new driver, Green did not start him 
until the last day of Hartford Meeting. When, after Rarus had 



AMERICAN TROTTING HORSE. 57 

trotted his first trial in the Special Speed Purse, in 2 m. 15 s., the 
starters proclaimed that Mr. Green had a horse that he thought 
could go in about 2 m. 10 s., and Edwin Forrest was brought out, 
few thought that the statement was more than an empty boast. 
Charley Green drove him, and at the second attempt nodded for 
the word. The horse struck out gamely, and was at the quarter in 
34 s. — half a second better than Rarus had just done. Down the 
back-stretch he went like the wind, and passed the half in 1 m. 6? s. 
He slowed up from this flying pace on the turn, and came by the 
three-quarter pole in 1 m. 40 1 s. (third quarter in 34 s.), and came 
down under the wire in -2 m. 14J s. — half a second better than 
Rarus had done. When this was announced the excitement was 
intense, for 2 m. 14J s. was all Goldsmith Maid could do at Hart- 
ford, two years previous. Rarus was now put on his mettle, and 
trotted the second trial in 2 m. 13 J s. (last quarter in 32^ s.). But 
Green thought he could beat that, and that Forrest was the horse 
that could do it. On the second trial he was sent off, and he went 
to the quarter in 33? s., without a skip. Then it seemed as if he 
had not been half trying. Such trotting was never seen before. He 
fairly flew, and it looked as though 2 m. 10 s. would be made; but 
the pace was too fast, and he broke badly when about eight lengths 
from the half-mile pole, losing several lengths, but Green caught him 
skillfully, and he was soon under full headway, reaching the half- 
mile pole in 1 m. 5i s. (second quarter in 31 f s.). Before he reached 
the middle of the third quarter he again went in the air, and though 
he soon recovered, Green had lost hope of surpassing his first effort 
and did not hurry him. The three-quarter pole was passed in 1 m. 
40 £ s., and he was coming down the home-stretch at a fair gait, when 
a friend who had run up to that place motioned to Green to go on, 
as there was still hope. From that point Forrest was sent along, 
and came under the wire, amid loud cheering, in 2 m. 16 s. 

After he became an inmate of Mr. Bonner's stable his progress 
was remarkable. Mr. Robert Bonner drove him to wagon on his 
three-quarter mile track near Tarrytown, N. Y., a mile in 2 m. 15 \ 
s., and the various members of the Tarrytown family delighted to 
exhibit the prowess of the new favorite. In July, 1879, a week 
later, Mr. A. A. Bonner drove him a mile in harness in 2 m. 13f s. 
On August 9, Mr. John Murphy, the favorite pupil of old Hiram 
Woodruff, drove him a mile in 2 m. 11 f s. Although these trials 
were witnessed by several reliable persons, and the time made can 
be depended upon as entirely accurate, not having been made in a 
public race, neither they nor the trial at Hartford can go upon the 
record. And to think of this great horse becoming a farm drudge, 
and leisurely dragging a lawn-mower ! ! ! 

" To what base uses we may return, Horatio !" 



58 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

The Chicago meeting of July, 1880, was an unusually brilliant 
one. St. Julien, Hopeful, Darby, Charley Ford, Hannis, Monroe 
Chief, Bonesetter, Wedgewood, Piedmont, Will Cody, Parana, Yol- 
taire, Hambletonian Bashaw, Josephus, Daisydale and Etta Jones, 
representatives of all the prominent trotting families, were among 
the contestants, and a general slashing of the records ensued. But 
amid the vast throng assembled at the course from day to day there 
were very few who dreamed that a match, on the last day of meet- 
ing, was to introduce to the trotting world one who would shortly 
dispossess the mighty St. Julien of his premiership. This was a 
Special Purse of $1000, for which the five-year-old Trinket and the 
six-year-old Maud S. were entered. Trinket was a bay mare by 
Princeps, son of Woodford Mambrino, and her dam was Ouida, by 
Rysdyk's Hambletonian. As a four-year-old she had astonished 
the world by equalling Flora Temple's famous record, and though 
the next year she sadly disappointed her backers, since then, in 
more capable hands, she proved herself one of the greatest mares 
that ever stood on iron. In the Chicago match, however, although 
the favorite in the betting, she was flighty and acted badly, while 
Maud S., steady as an old campaigner, won the first two heats 
easily in 2 m. 19 s., 2 m. 21 £s. Then, to the astonishment of all 
present, Captain Stone boldly announced that in the next heat dis- 
tance would be waived, and as an arrow from the bow the beauti- 
ful chestnut shot away, and passed under the wire in the wonder- 
ful time of 2 m. 13 j s. 

Maud S. was a beautiful golden-chestnut mare, fifteen hands 
three inches at the withers, and one and a half inches higher at 
the peak of the rump. Her head and ears large and rather coarse ; 
her neck as fine as a thoroughbred, her shoulders muscular; she 
was long in the barrel, coupled well back, with strong loins, power- 
ful symmetrical legs, and good feet. She wore a fourteen -ounce 
shoe forward, with four-ounce toe weights, and light shoes behind. 
Her action was the very poetry of motion, and as she glided by in 
the third heat of her great trot at Belmont Park, the writer thought 
he had never before seen any piece of machinery move so steadily 
or so beautifully. She was foaled on the Woodburn Stud Farm 
on the 28th of May, 1875, and was sired by Harold, son of Rysdyk's 
Hambletonian. Her dam was Miss Russell, a daughter of Pilot, 
Jr., out of Sally Russell by Boston, the sire of Lexington and 
Lecompte. She was owned, until her fourth year, by Captain 
George N. Stone, and, being a very great pet, was named 
Maud S. after his daughter. When she was four years old, 
driven by her trainer William W. Bair, she trotted an exhibi- 
tion mile in 2 m. 17is , and was sold to Mr. William H. Vander- 
bilt for $21,000. 



AMERICAN TROTTING HORSE. 



59 



At Cincinnati, July 6, 1880, she defeated Josephus, Lizzie 
2d, and Outlaw, in straight heats, best time 2 m. 25 s. ; her next 
race was that with Trinket described above. At Cleveland, July 28, 
she defeated Driver, Charley Ford, and Hannis, in straight heats, 
and at Buffalo she met the same horses, and after losing the first 
heat to Charley Ford in 2 m. 17 s., won the next three in 2 m. 
15J s., 2 m. 16f s., 2 m. 16J s. This was her last public race. 
Henceforth she was to be reserved for trots against time. At 
Rochester she essayed to beat St. Julien's record, and the watch 
stopped at 2 m. llf s.; at Springfield the track was slow, and being 
off, 2 m. 19 s. was the best she could do. At Chicago, Sept. 16, 
she trotted in 2 m. 11 J s., and two days later, at the same place, 
she surpassed all previous performances, and closed the season of 
1880 with a record of 2 m. lOf s. After this she went into winter 
quarters at Cincinnati. 

Her first appearance in public in 1881 was over the half-mile 
track at Columbus, June 30, to beat Ranis' 2 m. 17 J s. made there 
three years ago. This she did in 2 m. 13i s. At Detroit, July 4, 
she trotted in 2 m. 13 f s., and the week following, at Pittsburgh, 
she reduced her record to 2 m. 10 i s. At Chicago, July 23, she 
trotted in 2 m. 21 £ s., 2 m. 11£ s., 2 m. 11 s., and at Belmont Park, 
Philadelphia, although she failed to reduce her record, she trotted 
the three best consecutive heats on record, 2 m. 12 s., 2 m. 13i s., 
2 m. 12f s., trotting the first half of the second mile in 1 m. 3f s. 
At Buffalo she again failed to reduce her record, but at Rochester 
she passed under the wire in the wonderful time of 2 m. 10i s., the 
fastest time ever trotted by any horse, mare, or gelding. At Utica 
she had to be content with her past laurels, and thenceforth she was 
reserved f >r the Hartford Meeting, where it was confidently ex- 
pected that she would place the high-water mark at 2 m. 8 s. or 
2 m. 9 s.; but alas for human calculations, while at exercise on 
the day before that appointed for the exhibition, she turned her 
foot, spraining her ankle, and was thrown out of training for the 
rest of the season. 

For two years she remained in retirement, when suddenly 
Jay-Eye-See, a little black gelding by Dictator, son of Rysdyk's 
Hambletonian, out of a Pilot, Jr., mare, whose dam and 
grand dam were thoroughbred, took up the gauntlet she had 
thrown down and boldly attacked her supremacy. Though smali 
in stature, he was a " multum in parvo," and could get over the 
ground in a most surprising manner. His five-year-old record 
of 2 m. lOf s. was dangerously near to the Queen's, and when 
at Providence, R. I., August 1, 1881:, he cut off the fraction 



60 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

and trotted in 2 m. 10 s., Maud S.'s supremacy was gone, but only 
for one day, for on August 2, at Cleveland, she placed the mark at 
2 m. 09f s., which Jay- Eye-See was never able to wipe out. From 
1887 to 1892 the little black gelding led a life of retirement, hav- 
ing injured his leg by stepping upon a broken bottle in the pas- 
ture, and the world had almost forgotten his existence, when his 
owner conceived the idea that the frictionless glide of the pacer 
would not affect his injured leg. The idea was at once put into prac- 
tice, and it required but two lessons to show the little gelding how 
much easier he could go at the new gait. On August 21, 1892, he 
paced a mile at Independence, la., in 2 m. 06J s , being the only horse 
who has a record at both gaits of 2 m. 10 s., or better. His great 
antagonist, Maud S., had in the meantime been sold to Mr. Bobert 
Bonner, and her record of 2 m. 08f s., made in 1885, was for six 
years the acme of trotting records. 

Little in stature, but a giant in deeds, Harry Wilkes was per- 
haps the stoutest of all the many great sons of George Wilkes. 
Foaled in the Centennial year, he made his opening bow at Louis- 
ville, September 13, 1882, winning easily in 2 m. 29! s., 2 m. 26! 
s., 2 m. 28! s. Two days later he won a race at the same meeting, 
smd a few days later, at Lexington, he reduced his record to 2 m. 
231 s. He did not start in lb83, but in 1884 he won sixteen out 
of the nineteen races in which he started, and left off with a record 
of 2m. 15s. In 1885 he "bullied" the Grand Circuit, winning 
ten of his twelve races, but did not reduce his record. In 1886 
Harry Wilkes swept the Grand Circuit from end to end, lowering 
his record to 2 m. 14f s. One of his best races was at Belmont 
Park, Philadelphia, on August 13, where he defeated the brown 
stallion Phallas in straight heats. Phallas had a record of 2 m. 
13|s., made in the fourth heat of a hotly-contested race, and the 
general public deemed him invincible. But the little bay gelding 
was all on edge that day, and his quick, high-stepping action 
carried him up that heart-breaking hill in the third quarter faster 
than any horse I ever saw. It was more like flying than trotting, 
and, gamely as Phallas struggled, he could not beat the gay little 
bay. After going against the watch at Hartford, he marched in 
triumph across the continent. At San Francisco, November 27, 
1886, he defeated Guy Wilkes, Antevolo, Charley Hilton and 
Arab for a purse of $5000, Guy Wilkes taking the third heat in 
2 m. 16f s., and Harry Wilkes the other three in 2 m. 15£s., 2 m. 
16! s., 2m. 15s. His year's work had been a grand one — four- 
teen victories and but one defeat. He wintered in California, and 
was sold for $20,000. On April 2, 1887, at San Francisco, he re- 
duced his record to 2 m. 13! s. in a match against time. He then 
came East, but, enervated by the mild climate of the Golden State, 



AMERICAN TROTTING HORSE. 61 

he did but poorly, and though he did not finally retire from the 
turf until 1891, his last years were not uniformly successful. 

But now a new element was suddenly coming to the front, or 
rather the revival of an old one. From the days of James K. 
Polk, Hero and Pocahontas, the speed of the pacer had been rec- 
ognized, but the gait was not popular with the upper tendom of 
sporting circles, and it was not until 1880 that he was admitted to 
the Grand Circuit. To be sure there was some justification for 
the prejudice. The old style pacer had little knee or hock action, 
and when his stiff legs swung back and forth in his fast work, his 
body rolled like a storm-tossed barque in a choppy sea, and " the 
wiggler " was the expressive name by which he was generally 
known. The gait of his modern prototype is entirely different ; he 
carries his body so motionless that it requires a sharp eye to dis- 
tinguish the gaits, and as a roadster he is fully as pleasant a driver. 
The forerunner of the new type of pacers was Johnstone, a bay 
gelding by Joe Bassett, dam by Sweeting's Ned Forrest, and when 
at Chicago, October 3, 1884, he paced a mile in his matchless, 
frictionless way of going in 2 m. 06| s., Maud S.'s record was eclipsed. 
The despised pacer had at last fought his way into good society. 

This record stood for eight years, when Nancy Hanks, a trotter, 
went in 2 in. 05! s , at Independence, la., August 31, 1892, and a 
month later at Terre Haute, Ind , in 2 m. 04 s., and the enemies 
of the pacer threw up their hats in glee and shouted that the 
pacer's day was over. The shouting was short-lived, however, for 
on the very next day, on the same track, Mascot, a bay gelding by 
Deceive, son of Rysdyk's Hambletonian, won the first heat of the 
free-for-all race in 2 m. 04 s., and the trotter and pacer were now 
on equal terms. Though Saladin beat him the next year at Kirk- 
wood, Del , in 2 m. 05| s., Mascot won many good races in that 
and the two succeeding years, and is now driven on the roads near 
New York, the envy of every horseman who knows a good roadster 
when he sees him. 

During all these busy years Maud S. was the undisputed Queen 
of the Turf, but now her supremacy was threatened from an unex- 
pected quarter. On the far-away Pacific slope, where the Golden 
Gate opens wide her arms to receive the waters of the Asiatic seas, 
Gov. Leland Stanford, of transcontinental railway fame, bred, in 
1886, a filly, by Electioneer, out of Warsaw, by Gen. Benton, who had 
the fastest three-year-old record, the fastest four-year-old record, 
and the fastest five-year-old record up to 1891, thus beating Maud 
S.'s record by a half second. Sunol is a bay mare of singular con- 
formation, standing fully sixteen hands high at the coupling and 
only fifteen and a half at the withers. She had a blood-like head, 
long neck, good shoulders, and superb legs and feet. Her records 



62 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

were all mr.de on a kite-shaped track, with all the assistance that 
human ingenuity could devise to aid her, and though technically 
better, were not really as good performances as those made by 
Maud S.; but Mr. Bonner, jealous of the new-comer, kept the tele- 
graph wires between the two oceans hot until she was safely housed 
in his stable at Tarrytown, on the Hudson. Like many a high- 
priced purchase, Sunol was by no means the treasure he had anti- 
cipated. Her disposition was ugly and treacherous, and she never 
did anything worthy of her early reputation either on the track 
or at the stud. 

Maud S.'s record was made on a regulation track and to the old- 
fashioned high-wheel sulky, and it still remains the record for these 
conditions. In July, 1892, the bicycle sulky, with its pneumatic 
tires, made its appearance on a New England track, and the old high- 
wheeled traps were doomed, for it needed but a single heat to con- 
vince the most skeptical that the low, odd-looking affairs, which at 
first excited ridicule were from four to five seconds faster. This 
revolution in sporting vehicles was a fitting prelude to the advent of 
a new queen, a small brown mare of exquisite form and beauty, and, 
hailing from the Lexington region, where Lincoln's parents lived, 
was called Nancy Hanks, after the martyred President's mother. 
She was foaled in 1886, the same year as Sunol, and being by 
Happy Medium, son of Hambletonian and Princess, out of Nancy 
Lee by Dictator, another son of Hambletonian, was deeply inbred 
to the dead Hero of Chester. 

She commenced her racing career at Harrodsburg, Ky., July 31, 
1889, and won six races off the reel, all near home, losing only 
one heat, and gaining a three-year-old record of 2 m. 21 £ s. The 
next year she won six races, all but one in her native state, and 
did not lose a single heat, and went into winter quarters with a 
four-year-old record of 2 m. 14£ s. In 1891 she defeated the 
beautiful Belle Hamlin at Buffalo, N. Y., Margaret S. at Pontiac, 
Mich., and Allerton and Margaret S. at Independence, Mo , and 
then, royally disdaining all contests with horses, reserved all her 
efforts to subjugate old Father Time, and her record as a five- 
year-old was 2 m. 09 s., and the next year at Terre Haute, Ind., 
September 28, she cut the record down to 2 m. 04 s., and, though 
she subsequently made several efforts to reduce it, she was unsuc- 
cessful and retired from the turf in 1893 a queen, indeed, but 
not the equal of Maud S., Goldsmith Maid, Flora Temple or 
even dear old Lady Suffolk. 

Alix, a dainty, blood-like bay mare, foaled June 7, 1888, by 
Patronage, a grandson of Woodford Mambrino, was the next 
holder of the world's record, and is still Queen of the Trotting Turf. 
She was a born trotter and as a two-year-old started in ten races. 



AMERICAN TROTTING HORSE. 63 

and won a record of 2 m. 30 s.; as a three-year-old she had plenty 
of hard work and lowered her record to 2 m. 16i s. — a truly won- 
derful performance. But hard work was beginning to tell on the 
young mare, and in her four-year-old form she trotted but one race, 
which she won easily in 2 m. 12 J s., 2 m. 12£ s , 2 m. 13 s., but 
against the watch she went in 2 m. 10 s. As a live-year old 
she commenced the season of 1893 badly, by losing two races, 
the first she ever lost, and then won a memorable five-heat race at 
Columbus, Ohio, the deciding heat being in 2 m. 09 |s. At the 
great World's Fair meeting at Chicago, she obtained a five-year-old 
record of 2 m. 07 1 s. As a six-year-old at Terre Haute, Ind., 
August 17, 1894, she trotted three heats in 2 m. 06 s., 2 m. 06£s, 
2 m. 05 1 s., and at the same place, September 12, 1894, she equalled 
Nancy Hanks' record, and at Gralesburg, 111., one week later, she cut 
it down to 2 m. 03f s. Since then she has been retired from the 
turf. 

For eight years Smuggler's 2 m. 15i s. had stood at the head of 
the column, but on July 14, 1884, Phallas trotted in 2 m. 13f s., 
and on September 30 of the same year Maxie Cobb reduced it to 
2 m. 13is. For five years this was the high water mark, until 
the three-year-old Axtell cut it down in 1889 to 2 m. 12 s. The 
next year the Maine-bred Nelson made it 2 m. 10|s., and in 1891 
he made it 2 m. 10 s., only to be surpassed by Allerton, who trotted 
in 2 in. 09 1 s., and Palo Alto, the California champion, who equalled 
Maud S.'s record by trotting in 2 m. 08|s., while the two-year-old 
stallion Arion, at Stockton, Cal., November 10, astonished the 
world by trotting in 2 m. lOf s., and was sold immediately after for 
the princely sum of $125,000. These records seemed unassailable; 
Palo Alto was dead, and the season of 1892 was drawing to its 
close with little prospect of the appearance of any champions to 
claim the dead monarch's crown. But it is the unexpected that 
always happens, and the fading year was destined to go out in a 
blaze of glory. Stamboul was a kingly-looking stallion, ten years 
old, by Sultan, and his dam was the beautiful Fleetwing, a daugh- 
ter of Rysdyk's Hambletonian. As a six-year-old he had a record 
of 2m. 14| s., which he reduced the following year to 2 m. 12£s., 
and in 1890 to 2 m. 11 s. In 1891 he did not reduce his record, 
but in 1892 he atoned for it by trotting at Stockton, Cal., October 
22, in 2 m. 10£ s., and five days later in 2 m. 08? s. On Novem- 
ber 9 he went in 2m. 08s., and two weeks later in 2m. 07 is. 
Unfortunately, while there could be no question as to the genuine- 
ness of the performance, a technical rule requiring time perform- 
ances to be made at regular trotting meetings, at which there shall 
be at least one purse or stake competed for each day, was violated, 



64 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

and the sapient magnates of the American Register Association 
declined to recognize the record. But the great public did, and 
Stamboul was hailed from one end of the country to the other as 
the champion stallion. His great rival, Kremlin, was a four-year- 
old, who this year had won the Transylvania Stakes at Lexington, 
in straight heats, in 2m. His., 2m. 13 s., 2m. 11 |s., beating a 
field of good horses. At Nashville, Tenn., November 5, he trotted 
against time in 2m. 08£s., on November 12 in 2 m. 07 f s., Novem- 
ber 21 in 2m. 08|s., and November 25, twice, in 2m. 09s, and 
at Montgomery, Ala., November 29, in 2 m. 09 s., and on De- 
cember 1 in the same time. The American Register Association 
thereupon declared him the champion, and he retired to the stud 
at the end of the year with the laurels of victory fresh on his brow. 
The season of 1894 was one of unusual brilliancy. At Gales- 
burg, 111., September 20, the black colt Directly, by Direct, re- 
duced the two-year-old record for pacers to 2 m. 07f s., and at San 
Jose, Cal., eight days later, the bay colt Adbell, by Advertiser, 
placed the yearling record for trotters at 2 m. 23 s. These, with 
the yearling pacing record, made by Belle Acton the year previous, 
and Arion's two-year-old trotting record, made three years before, 
are still the world's records, and it is to be hoped that the days of 
precocious youngsters is past, and that these records will suffice for 
years to come. The older horses did equally well. The black won- 
der, Directum, at "one fell stroke" reduced the four-year-old 
record, the race record and the stallion records by trotting in 2 m. 
05 i s., and the dainty Alix cut down the world's trotting record to 
its present mark, 2 m. 03|s., and at Terre Haute, Ind., September 
17, beat Ryland T., Pixley, Belle Vara and Walter E. in 2 m. 
06 s., 2 m. 06^s., 2 m. 05$ s., the fastest two consecutive heats and 
the fastest three consecutive heats ever trotted in a race. Fantasy 
trotted in 2 m. 06 s. and Ralph Wilkes in 2 m. 06|s. against the 
watch, and Ryland T. in a race went in 2 m. 07 1 s. The chestnut 
mare Nightingale, in a two-mile race, reduced the world's record to 
4 m. 36£s., and Sallie Simmons and Roseleaf the double-team race 
record to 2m. 15is. Nor were the pacers ''more backward in 
coming forward." Besides Directly's wonderful two-year-old record, 
Online cut the four-year-old record to 2 m. 04 s., and John R. 
Gentry and Robert J. dominated the turf with their records of 
2 m. 01 i s. and 2 m. 02 J s., respectively 

With such an unbroken series of victories over poor old Father 
Time, and with such trotters as Ralph Wilkes, Fantasy, Beuzetta, 
Klamath, Azote, Directum, Kentucky Union, Phoebe Wilkes and 
Athanio, and the wonderful trio of pacers, Robert J., John R. Gen- 
try and Joe Patchen, waiting the signal to start, the wiseacres of 
the press were justified in anticipating an equally brilliant year for 



AMERICAN TROTTING HORSE. 65 

1895. But alas ! for human expectations, the racing was good ; 
with such horses it could hardly have been otherwise ; but Father 
Time this year more than held his own. The sensational 
horse of the year was unquestionably the bay gelding Azote, by 
Whips, out of Josie, by Whipple's Hambletonian, the fastest trot- 
ter ever bred on the Pacific slope. Although born at Governor 
Stanford's famous Palo Alto Farm, he was little thought of in that 
home of precocious youngsters and unrealized expectations, and 
spent the early years of his life as a common hack about the farm. 
Fortunately a "rubber" in the stable took a great fancy to the 
horse, and told the veteran Orrin A. Hickok, on one of his visits 
of inspection, that if he was looking for a trotter, the big, over- 
grown buggy horse standing by was the pick of the lot. Hickok 
laughed derisively, but finally was persuaded to give him a chance, 
and was soon convinced that the " rubber" was right. In his first 
season, Azote won two of the five races in which he started, and 
was second in the other three, acquiring a record of 2 m. 14| s. 
In 1893 his legs failed him, and he won but one Qf his five races, 
and Hickok, who could not forget his early prejudices, persuaded 
Governor Stanford to offer him for sale. That astute horseman, 
Monroe Salisbury, snapped him up, and under his management he 
won many races in 1894, the best of them being the $5000 Transyl- 
vania Stakes at Lexington, Ky., in which he defeated some of the 
best horses of the day in straight heats in 2 m. 08| s., 2 m. 09 J s., 
2m 09 |s. In 1895, in his first race, he reduced his record to 2 in. 
071 s., and then in quick succession to 2 m. 06 J s. and 2 m. 05? s. 
He defeated Directum, Fantasy, Beuzetta, Klamath, Muta Wilkes, 
Ryland T. and Hulda, and did not lose a heat to any of them. 
And as if this was not glory enough for a despised "buggy hack." 
at Galesburg, 111., September 5, he trotted a mile against time in 
2 m. 04f s., the first quarter, according to the official record, being 
in 29 |s. 

Beuzetta, who fairly divided with Azote the honors of the season 
of 1895, is a homely-looking mare, but, if " handsome is as hand- 
some does," she may be considered one of the handsomest mares 
that ever trod the turf. She was foaled May 11, 1891, and is 
by Onward, son of the great George Wilkes, out of Beulah, by 
Harold, sire of Maud S. As a two-year-old she started twice, and, 
although she lost both races through misbehavior, she took a record 
of 2 m. 26 \ s. In her three-year-old form she won all of the four 
races in which she started, one of which was the Kentucky Futurity, 
worth $31,480, in straight heats, in 2 m. 16£s., 2 m. 16Js., 2 m. 
14| s. — the largest sum ever won by a trotter in a single race. In 
1395 she won all her races but one, Azote being her sole con- 
queror, and reduced her record to 2 m. 06f s. 
5 



66 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

Fantasy, who also succumbed to Azote's prowess, was a tall, 
slim, loosely-made mare of delicate constitution, but possessing 
great speed. She was foaled March 7, 1890, and was by Chimes, 
son of Electioneer, out of a grand- daughter of Almont. She was 
not able to duplicate her record of 2 m. 06 s., made at Terre Haute 
the previous year, and proved a disappointment the whole season. 
In 1896 she came out strong, and took her place at the head of 
the procession, while Azote and Beuzetta were decidedly "off" all 
that year, and have since been retired to private life. Her princi- 
pal opponents were Kentucky Union (2 m. 07Js), Onoqua (2 m. 
08| s.), Klamath (2m. 07 \ s.), William Penn (2m. 07 is.), and 
Lord Clinton (2 m. 08|s.) 

For one-half a century the two-minute horse had been the dream 
of the enthusiastic horseman, who still clung to the fond ideal, not- 
withstanding the elaborate deductions of scientific writers, who 
plainly proved that two minutes was clearly beyond the possibility 
of horse endurance. As gradually both trotting and pacing 
champions drew nearer and nearer the long-desired mark, the 
public interest in the relative merits of the trotting and pacing 
gaits increased. It was a close race between the two ways of going, 
and much speculation was indulged in as to the probable winner. 
The champion trotting stallion of 1893 was Directum, a black 
horse by Director, son of the full brother of the mighty Dexter, 
out of Stemwinder by Venture, son of Belmont. He had easily 
defeated all of the best horses of his day without once suffering 
defeat, and had wound up a sensational season by trotting at Cum- 
berland Park, Nashville, October 18, in 2 m. 05£s., in the third 
heat of a race. Saladin, by Sultan, dam Ella Lewis by Vermont, 
was the champion pacing stallion, with a record of 2 m. 05f s. He is a 
beautiful seal brown, and the very poetry of motion, but his career 
had been a checkered one, and when he was matched against Direc- 
tum at Point Breeze, Philadelphia, on November 27, 1893, few 
thought he had the ghost of a chance. The day was cold and 
gloomy, the dark, low-hanging clouds portended a coming storm, 
and winter overcoats and mufflers were more than comfortable. As 
it was the last race of the season, and Directum was a drawing 
card, the largest crowd which old Point Breeze had seen for 
many years shivered in the grand stand and club house balconies, 
and packed the intervening spaces. The pool box did a poor 
business, for Directum had swept everything before him, and few 
dreamed that Saladin would even make him extend himself. 

Off they started for the first heat, neck and neck together, but 
before the quarter pole was reached, in 3Hs., Saladin broke, and 
Directum obtained a lead of three lengths, which he steadily in- 
creased, until at the three-quarter pole, in 1 m. 371 s., it was six 



AMERICAN TROTTING HORSE. 67 

lengths. Apparently all was over but the shouting, for no one 
believed that any horse could close up such a gap on the champion 
trotting stallion, a horse that never made a mistake and always 
had a reserve of speed to call upon. But all of a sudden the cry 
ran through the crowd, " Look at Saladin ! Look at Saladin ! " as 
the brown whirlwind came like a shot from a gun, and step by step 
gained on the too-confident leader. The excitement became 
intense, the bitter cold was forgotten, and the whole audience rose 
en masse to cheer the flying stallions. On they go ; in vain did 
Directum strain every nerve to keep the lead he had won; grad- 
ually, but surely, Saladin gained on him ; the six lengths' lead was 
cut down to two, and as they passed the ladies' stand, it was a 
length and a half; at the grand stand it was only half a length; 
ten yards from the wire the two horses were on even terms, and as 
they flew under the wire with Saladin's beautiful head fairly in 
front, the audience went frantic with excitement. Such an electric 
burst of speed had never been seen on the course before ; it was 
not racing, it was flying; Saladin had paced the last quarter with- 
out a break or skip in 29 k s. — better than a two-minute gait. 
Although Directum had lost the first heat, he was still the favorite, 
as it was known that he was in the pink of condition, and Saladin 
was not deemed prepared for such a bruising race. The result 
justified these predictions. Saladin struggled gamely in each of 
the remaining heats, but broke in each on the home-stretch, and 
Directum won them by a length or more. Still to have won one 
heat such as the first was glory enough for the pacer. 

But Saladin did not long continue the champion pacing stallion. 
There were others mightier than he in reserve, and of these 
mighty ones none are more popular with those who love a horse for 
what he is than the beautiful, big black stallion, Joe Patchen. 
While others have shown greater flights of speed and have lowered 
technical records, none have surpassed the bonny black in honesty, 
willingness, courage and gameness. Never in his long career has 
he flunked or shown the white feather, but, like old Lady Suffolk, 
he will do his level best as cheerfully at the end of the last heat as 
at the beginning of the first. His record of 2 m. 01 £ s. has been 
surpassed but by two pacers and no trotters. 

At Belmont Park, Philadelphia, September 22, 1897, the pacers 
John R. Gentry and Robert J., went to wagon in the remarkable 
time of 2 m. 09 s., which at Glens Falls, N. Y., October 8, they 
reduced to 2 m. 08 s. — faster than any pair of trotters went to 
wagon, or any pacers but themselves. Both horses are wonders in 
their way, but different in their make-up and characteristics. John 
R. Gentry is a small bay horse by a son of Red Wilkes, out of a 
mare by Wedgewood. He is a beautiful horse and phenomenally 



68 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

fast; he has gone to the half-mile post in 59£s., and done the 
mile in 2 m. 0| s., being by the records second only to the greal 
Star Pointer. He is not as consistent a performer as Joe Patchen, 
and does not like a long-drawn race. Withdrawn from the turf 
a±ter a successful career, he and his companion, Robert J., may be 
seen on the roads near New York. These two old contestants for a 
time travelled together and took no man's dust on the road. Robert 
J. has a record of 2 m. 01 i s., within \ s. of Joe Patchen, and is almost 
as game. As a colt he was so puny and insignificant, and withal 
so badly sprung in the knees, that his breeder, when retiring from 
business, actually gave him away rather than allow him to be 
shown at the closing-out sale of his horses. Royally bred, being 
by Hartford, son of Harold, the sire of* Maud S., out of Geraldine, 
by Jay Gould, son of Rysdyk's Hambletonian, by the logic of the 
pedigree-makers, he should have been a trotter, but a pacer he was 
from the start, and a great one, too — the greatest perhaps, with 
the exception of Star Pointer, the world has ever seen. 

When, in 1898, John R. Gentry, who had commenced the sea- 
son with a record of 2 m. OJs., failed to reduce it, and Robert J., 
with his record of 2m. Ol^s , could do no better, the world settled 
down to the belief that if they could not cross the fated line, it 
might be years before any one could. But the fine-spun theories 
were to be upset and the two-minute horse not a dream, but an 
accomplished fact. At Readville, Mass., August 28, 1897, Star 
Pointer, who had commenced the season with a record of 2m. 02is., 
paced a mile against the watch in 1 m. 59Js., and the following year 
beat two minutes four times — a feat which no other horse, trotter 
or pacer, has ever accomplished. 

A member of the great Tom Hal family — the famous saddle 
horse family of Tennessee, which has given to the world Little 
Brown Jug (with his record of 2 m. llf s.), Hal Pointer (2 m. 
04* s.), Hal Dillard (2m. 04f s.), Hal Broden (2m. 07 is.), Laurel 
(2 m. 09Js.), and Brown Hal (2 m. 12 J s.), the sire of Star 
Pointer — he is the only one of the great pacers who is not trotting 
bred. He is a big, well-shaped, wine-colored bay horse, and goes 
with a free, bold stride, and it is believed that his present record 
of 1 m. 59i s. is by no means the limit of his speed. In 1897 he 
started sixteen times, winning from Joe Patchen seven times and 
losing twice to him. He beat Frank Agan twice, and John R. 
Gentry and Lottie Lorraine each once. His other contests were 
with Father Time. He commenced the year with a record of 2 m. 
02? s., which he equalled once and beat eight times. Fourteen 
times he beat the fastest trotting record, and at Readville, Mass., 
August 28, he capped the climax of his career by pacing a mile in 
1 m. 59i s. In 1898 he started seven times, all against the watch, 



AMERICAN TROTTING HORSE. 69 

his slowest mile being in 2 m. 02i s , and the fastest 1 m. 59£ s.„ 
the same as his previous record. He beat two minutes four times 
that year, a feat which no other horse has ever done once. 

" And panting Time toiled after him in vain." 

The close of the Nineteenth Century was marked by the advent 
of two great trotters who pressed poor Father Time very closely, but 
did not quite reach the two-minute mark. In 1900 The Abbot, a 
bay gelding by Chimes, clipped half a second from the world's 
record by trotting a mile in 2.031 at Terra Haute, Ind., while 
Cresceus, with a mile in 2.04 at Cleveland,reduced the trotting stal- 
lion record 1£ seconds. The gelding failed to equal his record in 
1901, but Cresoeus came out better than ever, establishing a world's 
record of 2.02J, in a trial against the watch at Columbus, Ohio, 
on Aug. 2 ; and on the 15th of the same month at Brighton Beach, 
N. Y , he won the first heat in a $12,000 match race with The 
Abbot in 2.03i, which beat all race records. Cresceus won the sec- 
ond heat in 2.06?, distancing The Abbot, and then trotted a third 
mile against the watch in 2.05, making the fastest three consecu- 
tive miles ever trotted by a horse in a race. 

In appearance Cresceus shows little resemblance to his sire, 
Robert McGregor, "the Monarch of the home stretch." Though 
styled a chestnut in color, he narrowly escapes being a dun, 
while his mane and tail fade to a blonde at their fringes. His one 
point of beauty is his head, which is clean and bony, with soft, 
expressive eyes set well apart, and ears full of character. He has 
tremendous muscular substance, and the driving power of his hind 
quarters is something marvellous. There is not a weak spot in his 
entire make-up, and yet he has many peculiarities in his way of 
going that makes him once seen always remembered. He is low- 
headed and lumbering in his slow paces, just the opposite to 
his jaunty sire, but once aroused no horse has a more de- 
termined way of going. He is a bulldog trotter, if there ever 
was one, and he has speed to match his courage. At speed 
his head drops almost to the level of his withers, and while hi3 
action is very close forward, yet the fold of his knee does not carry 
him near his elbows. He pounds terrifically, and thunders past 
like some resistless engine adjusted to the nicety of the daintiest 
mechanism. 

His early history resembles that of Andrew Jackson, though 
Cresceus was a yearling when his fate hung in the balance. 
Having been blistered on the throat for an attack of epizootic, 
in his efforts to relieve himself from the suffering caused by 
the severe application, he sawed his neck against the upper door 
of his stall, which had been carelessly left open, until his wind- 



70 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

pipe appeared bared and bleeding, and presented such a pitiable 
appearance that his owner ordered him to be killed and put out of 
his misery. Through carelessness or inadvertence, this was delayed 
until the following morning, when, to the great surprise of all, the 
horse was found to be so much improved that it was decided to give 
him another chance forhis life, which he accepted, and eventually 
became one of the healthiest and most promising colts on the 
Ketcham farm. His owner, from some remembrance of his classic 
studies when a boy at the staid old Quaker school of Westtown, 
called his pet Cresceus, after Caesar's slave, who was famous for his 
skill in chariot races. The stallion was six years old when he made his 
record of 2.04 and had been in training since he was two years old. 
In his first four years on the turf he started in 33 races; won 19; 
took second money in 9, third in 4, fifth in 1 ; never having been 
unplaced. He won 53 of the 112 heats in which he started, 21 of 
which were in 2.10 or better; 40 in 2.15 or better, and 51 in 2.30 
or better. In addition to these races he started seven times against 
the watch, four times trotting in better than 2.06. He established 
thirty records, and some horsemen think that he is the "noblest 
Roman of them all." 

Ed. Geers, who trained The Abbot, and has driven him in 
all of his races, says in his book, Experience With Trotters and 
Pacers: " He has an intelligent-looking head, and his general 
conformation is smooth ; while his legs are not unusually heavy, 
they are well formed, and his feet are perfect. Taken as a 
whole, he comes about as near being an ideal- looking race horse 
of the modern school as is often seen. I first commenced work 
with him in the fall of 1896, when he was three years old. At 
that time he was rough-gaited and inclined to amble and mix 
his gaits. I experimented with him for some time before he con- 
vinced me that he possessed material sufficiently good to be eligible 
to start in the Grand Circuit. I finally shod him with eleven-ounce 
shoes in front and added three-ounce toe- weights, and put a square- 
toed shoe on the left front foot and the right hind foot, and made 
the shoe on the left hind foot full at the toe and a trifle longer 
than the shoe on the other hind foot, and, shod in this way, he 
would trot square after the preliminary amble in which he would 
usually indulge when first started — a habit he has not yet entirely 
forsaken. His first start was at Detroit, July 13, 1897, in the M. 
and M. stake, in which he won the second heat in 2. 11 £, the fastest 
heat of the race, and finished in fourth place. He started a week 
later at the same meeting in the 2.20 class, and was unplaced. But 
at Cleveland, the next week, he won the 2.18 class, in straight heats, 
in 2.12f, 2. 11 £ and 2.14^. At Fort Wayne he won the first two 
heats in 2.13? and 2.13J, was third in the third heat, and dis- 



AMERICAN TROTTING HORSE. 71 

tanced in the fourth. At the August meeting, at Readville, he 
won, in straight heats, in 2.14f , 2.13 and 2.141. He also won at 
Hartford, in straight heats, in 2.15, 2.1 6 J and 2.161. At Louis- 
ville he won the first heat in 2.13, was second in the second and 
third heats, and distanced in the fourth. At Lexington he won 
the second, third and fourth heats, in 2.13, 2.15J and 2.15f. At 
the September meeting, at Readville, he again won, in straight 
heats, in 2.15, 2.131 and 2 13£. At Portland he won the first, second 
and fourth heats, in 2.181, 2.131 and 2.151 — making for his first 
season the following record : Six times first, fourth once and un- 
placed three times. His first start in 1898 was at Hartford, July 
4, where he won a three-heat race to wagon in 2.14 and 2.121; 
his record in the second heat being the world's race record to 
wagon. He next started at Detroit in the 2.10 class, which he 
won, in straight heats, in 2.12£, 2.12 and 2.08f. In the same 
class, at Cleveland, the next week, he met and defeated Eagle 
Flannigan, Pilot Boy, Don Cupid and Rilma, in straight heats, in 
2.08^,2.09^ and 2. 09 J. He won the second and third heats at 
Columbus in 2.081 and 2.08J, and finished in second place in the 
race. He won the first two heats at Glens Falls in 2.121 and 
2.11 J, and finished in second place. At Hartford he won the first, 
fourth and fifth heats, in 2.111, 2.101 and 2.09|. He won at 
Fort Erie, in straight heats, in 2.121, 2.14J and 2.13. At Port- 
land he finished in third place. At the fall meeting, at Readville, 
he won in straight heats, in 2.081, 2.091 and 2.08|. He closed 
the season at Lexington, where he Won, in straight heats, in 215£, 
2 08 and 2.081; his record for the second racing season being 
seven times first, twice second and third once, and retiring in his five- 
year-old form with a race record of 2.08. He developed speed so 
rapidly and showed all the elements of a first-class race horse so 
plainly that, before the season was through I was convinced he 
would be invincible in the free-for-all class whenever I should deem 
it advisable to introduce him to that select company. He started 
the campaign of 1899 at Detroit, July 20, in the 2 08 class, 
where he won the first, third and fourth heats, in 2.07£, 2.09 and 
2.10|. In the same class, at Cleveland, the next week, he met 
and defeated Eagle Flannigan, Kentucky Union, Mattie Patterson 
and John Nolan, in straight heats, in 2.08|, 2.08? and 2.08|. 
He won in the same class at Columbus, in straight heats, in 2.09|, 
2 071 and 2.07 J. His first start in the free-for-all class was at 
Fort Erie, August 7, 1899, which he won, in straight heats,in 2.08, 
2.09 J and 2.10£. In the free-for-all at Glens Falls he defeated 
Bingen, Monterey, Kentucky Union, Directum Kelly and John 
Nolan, winning the first, third and fourth heats, in 2 09, 2.09| and 
2 08f . He won in the same class at Hartford, in straight heats, in 



72 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

2 OS}, 2 08 f and 2.07 f. He repeated this performance at Provi- 
dence by winning two straight heats in a free-for-all three-heat race 
in 2.08} and 2.06f. At New York he started against John Nolan, 
in a free-for-all three-heat race, and won in straight heats, in 2.<>9f 
and 2.06 J. He started at Providence in the free-for-all, and had 
Bingen as his only competitor, whom he defeated, in straight heats, 
in 2.09|, 2.09J and 2.06}. He closed the season's campaign at 
Lexington, where he defeated Bingen and Cresceus, winning the 
third, fourth and fifth heats in 2071, 2.08} and 2 10}— Bingen 
winning the first two heats in 2.07} and 2.09. His record for the 
season being ten races won and not meeting a single defeat. No 
other horse, living or dead, ever made such a record as this. In 
a total of thirty races, embracing all the races in which he has ever 
started, he was first in twenty-three, second in two, third in one, 
fourth in one, and unplaced in three. In the thirty races in which 
he started, he won seventy-six heats, all below 2.20 ; sixty-nine of 
these heats were better than 2.15, and thirty-eight were better 
than 2.10. In 1900 there was no free-for-all class in the Grand 
Circuit, and, believing he had the ability to trot a faster mile than 
any horse had ever yet done, I took him along with my racing 
stable and gave exhibitions at many of the large meetings. I first 
started him at Detroit, and he trotted a mile in 2.07. Readville 
next engaged his attention, and he there trotted a mile in 2.05 £. 
The next trial was at Providence, and here the time was 2.04|. 
When Hartford was reached the race record to wagon was 2. 12}, 
which he made on this track in 1898, and the trial record to wagon 
was 2-09 J, held by Lucille. I therefore determined to try and 
crown him as king in front of this vehicle, and he easily demol- 
ished all previous records by drawing a wagon a full mile in the 
phenomenal time of 2.05 1. I next started him against the Sickle 
Bearer, at New York, where he trotted to a record of 2.04; and 
when Terre Haute was reached in the fall, all the conditions were 
favorable for a fast mile, and I there drove him a mile in 2.03}, 
and thereby dethroned Alix as Queen of the trotting world. The 
fractional parts of this record-breaking mile were made as follows, 
viz: First quarter in 31 f seconds, second quarter in 30 J seconds, 
third quarter in 29 % seconds, fourth quarter in 31 } seconds, and 
the mile in 2.03}. It will be observed that the middle half of this 
mile was trotted in exactly one minute, which is much faster than 
any of his predecessors ever trotted this particular part of the mile, 
and that while several other champions have surpassed his time in 
the first quarter, no one has ever approached the speed he showed 
in the third quarter. It will also bo observed that in the five starts 
he made against time in harness, he improved at every trial, from 
2.07 at Detroit to 2.03} at Terre Haute. The gait of The Abbot, 



AMERICAN TROTTING HORSE. 73 

when at full speed, approaches perfection as nearly as we are likely 
to see in any horse for some time; there is just enough, but not 
too much, knee or hock action ; his stride is even, fast and friction- 
less, with no false motions or waste of power. . . . That a horse 
will trot a mile in harness in two minutes in the near future does 
not, in my judgment, admit of a doubt. Whether any of the horses 
I have mentioned will be the first to accomplish this much-desired 
result, time will soon demonstrate." Alas for Mr. Geers' prediction, 
The Abbot died early in 1904, and what he might have done is 
only conjecture. 

•The advent of the Twentieth Century witnessed the beginning 
of the career of the Champion pacer, Dan Patch, the famous son of 
honest old Joe Patchen, whose contests with Robert J. and John 
R. Gentry made the close of the Nineteenth Century luminous 
with the glory of the Pacer. Dan Patch, a brown horse, whose dam 
by Wilkesberry brought in a fresh impression of the Wilkes blood, 
made his first appearance in public as a four year old at Boswell, 
Ind., Aug. 30, 1900, where he won the 2.35 class in straight heats, 
obtaiuing a record of 2.22 J, which he reduced to 2.16 at Lafayette, 
Ind., the following week. At Crawfordsville, Ind., Sept. 12, and 
Brazil, Ind., he won again. In his first year on the turf he won 
four races easily against good fields and only lost one heat. The 
next year he went down the Grand Circuit with flying colors, win- 
ning eleven hotly contested races in straight heats, and at Brighton, 
Beach, N. Y., Aug. 16 and 17, after losing the first heat to Martha 
Marshall in 2.09,^he won in 2.04J, 2.071, 2.05|. 

In 1902 he defeated such good ones as Searchlight, Connor, 
Indiana, Riley B. and Harold H , and reduced his record in races 
to 2.03f, and against the watch to 1.59J. His reputation was 
now such that it was difficult to find competitors, and henceforth 
his only opponent was old Father Time, whom he handled un- 
mercifully, and some think unfairly, for in his efforts against him 
he was accompanied by pace-makers and had the advantage of 
wind-shields and dirt-shields. 

In his six years on the turf he won nineteen races, all but 
two in straight heats, and went against the watch thirty-nine 
times; beat two minutes ten times, and has a record of 1.55i; 
but when we compare his career with that of his sire, who will 
say that in all that goes to make a horse great, honesty of 
purpose, unflinching gameness and strength of character, the son 
with his champion record is better than his sire, grand old Joe 
Patchen. 

The pathetic feature of the races of 1902 was the wonderful 
success of the blind five year old stallion Rhythmic, who won more 
money than any trotter did in a season. Blind of both eyes ever 



74 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

since he was a colt, and trusting entirely to his driver's guidance, 
game as a bulldog, and fearless of mishaps, he won the classic 
Merchants' and Manufacturers' $10,000 stake at Detroit, July 15, 
in straight heats in 2.11*, 2.11 J, 2.11f. It was the blind horse's 
maiden race, and any of his thirteen competitors could beat 2.15, 
but his grand appearance and well-known infirmity made him a 
general favorite, and thousands greeted his easy victory with hearty 
cheers. His next start was at Columbus, 0., July 30, where he 
scored another straight-heat victory in 2.12*, 2.12}, 2.13|. He 
then went to Buffalo, N. Y., where on Aug. 4, he won in straight 
heats, 2.09|, 2.10}, 2.13*. The following week he won the 
Bonner Memorial Stakes for $10,000 at Brighton Beach in 
2.09}, 2.09|, 2.12. 

Rhythmic's next start was in the Roger Williams Stake at Nar- 
ragansett Park. This proved to be an eight-heat race, and was 
finally won by Nutbearer, Rhythmic winning the second heat in 
2.08|. Six heats were trotted August 27, and five horses were heat 
winners. The race was then postponed until the following day, when 
he was distanced in the seventh heat of the race. He started at 
Hartford the following week, September 1, won two heats in 2.10, 
2.11, but only got second place. 

From Hartford Rhythmic went to Syracuse, N. Y., where he 
started, Sept. 9, in the Woodruff Stake, and won in 2.11}, 
2. 10 J and 2.12. September 16 found him at Empire City Park 
fighting for the 2.20 class, purse $5,000, and he got it, too, win- 
ning in straight heats in 2.08, 2.08}, 2.08*. 

And at Terre Haute, Ind., Sept. 23, he won again in 2.09, 
but this was his last win that year. At Cincinnati he could only 
obtain third place in a field of nine, both Anzella and Major Del- 
mar finishing before him. At Lexington, Ky., he fared still worse, 
coming in twelfth in the first heat, and was drawn in the second. 
In 1903 he was very unsuccessful, winning but two out of the 
thirteen races for which he started, although he reduced his record 
to 2.06 1. Since then he has not appeared on the turf. 

The sensation of 1904 was undoubtedly the beautiful Sweet Marie, 
and her story reads like a romance. A stable boy in Los Angeles 
bought for a song the well-bred mare Lady Rivers, by Carr's Mam- 
brino, and was allowed by his employer, who owned the famous stal- 
lion McKinney, to breed the mare to him. As a five-year-old, Sweet 
Marie beat all opponents at the matinees in her home town, but was 
not allowed to obtain a record. The following year she made her 
turf debut at Seattle, Wash., where she won six races in succession 
without an effort, the fastest time in any of them being 2.15*. She 
then went to Salem, Ore., where she won the first heat in 2.13*, but 
being third in the next, the judges accused her driver of pulliug her, 



AMERICAN TROTTING HORSE. 75 

and ordered him out of the sulky. Upon his refusal to obey, he 
and the mare were indefinitely suspended. This sensational scene 
ended her campaign that year, and few deemed that the next would 
cover her with glory. A young man of good family in the East 
was in Los Angeles for his health, and when he saw the mare, fell 
in love with her, and began training her purely for his own amuse- 
ment. So successful was he that he brought her East and cam- 
paigned her the greater part of the year, when, fault being found 
with his driving, turned her over to the veteran driver, Alta P. Mc- 
Donald. She commenced the season of 1904 by winning at Detroit, 
July 27, in straight heats, in 2.10, 2.10i, 2.101:, and the following 
week at Buffalo, Aug. 5, she beat Tiverton and seven others in 2.09 J, 

2.09, John Taylor capturing the first heat in 209|. Then on to 
New York, Aug. 10, where she beat Aristo and four others in 2.10 £, 

2.10, and walking across the bridge to Brooklyn the next week, she 
won the $10,000 purse, and again beat Aristo and five others in 2 09, 
2.08i, 2.1 H, the second heat being a dead heat with Aristo. At 
Readville, Aug. 25, she won the last three heats after losing the 
first two heats to Direct View, her best time being 2.11 £, and then 
at Providence, Aug. 31, she beat Tiverton (who won the first two 
heats), and five others in reducing her record to 2.06J. At Hart- 
ford she was off, and Tiverton beat her, but at Columbus, Sept. 22, 
and at Cincinnati, Sept. 30, she regained her laurels by winning hotly 
contested races from Ozanam, the fast daughter of Ax tell, and others. 
Crossing into Dixie, at Lexington, Oct. 6. she met Tiverton again, 
and after losing the first two heats to him in 2.05|, 2 04 J, won the 
next three and the race iu 2.05, 2.08J, 2.09. At Memphis, Tenn., 
Oct. 18, she beat the gray gelding, Dr. Strong, and five others in 
2 04f , 2.06, and three days later she finished ahead of Fereno and 
three others in 2.05 i, 2.06|, and three days later still, at the same 
place, she wound up a remarkable weeks' work by winning the 
Free-for-All from Dr. Strong, Ozanam and Snyder McGregor, in 
2.071, 2.05. In that year she started in sixteen races losing only 
one, and trotted thirty winning heats. Tiverton, her leading op- 
ponent, started six times and won three races, his best time being 
half a second better than the mare. 

This year, after a series of in and out races with Tiverton, 
Sweet Marie Went against the watch at Readville, Mass., Oct. 6, 
and reduced her record to 2.04J. 

The latest to enter the charmed two-minute circle is the chest- 
nut stallion Audubon Boy, by J. J. Audubon out of Flaxey by 
Benton Wilkes, who, at Beadville, Mass., Sept. 22, driven by his 
owner, James Gatcomb, paced a mile against time in 1 59 i equalling 
Star Pointer's record. 

The present Queen of the Trotting Turf is Lou Dillon, the fair 



76 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

wild flower of California, a dark chestnut mare seven years old, by 
Sidney Dillon, dam by Milton Medium, son of Happy Medium. 
Millard Sanders who has been her trainer and driver since 
she was a yearling says of her: "She has pacing-horse speed 
and the strongest heart of any horse I ever saw. Lou Dillon is 
very feminine. She has pride, but it is a gracious pride. She is 
notional, but her notions are pretty; she wants to do things in her 
own way, but then her own way is just the right way for her. Lou 
in her races comes to the starting point with a hop, skip and a 
jump, a little dance, a little gallop — all wrong from the orthodox 
point of view, but all right for Lou Dillon. In another horse such 
conduct would be most reprehensible, and would presage badly for 
steadiness in the race, but in Lou's case all the frisking is a mere 
harmless effervescence. She is so high strung, so eager, so full of 
strength and go and joyous life that she simply can't hold herself — 
she must dance and prance. But once in the race no horse ever 
went truer than Lou. The word ' driv^e,' though the proper techni- 
cal term, conveys a false idea concerning the person who sits be- 
hind Lou in her races. She isn't really driven at all ; she knows 
nothing of the whip and little of the bit. As she matured it was 
easily perceived that she had great speed possibilities, but at the 
same time sober-sided people shook their heads over her. She was 
so high strung that they thought she was overstrung — too nervous, 
too notional, too frivolous, too wayward to ever amount to any- 
thing. When harness was first put on her she showed nervousness 
and impatience and she wanted her own way. The farm trainer, 
a very experienced man, but a stickler for orthodoxy, insisted on 
her doing things as other horses did then. Mildly but firmly she 
refused, and when he still persisted, they quarreled. 

"Lou has a sweet disposition — she never harbors a vicious 
thought, she is generous and gentle, yet most brave and full of fire, 
and so it is possible to force a quarrel with her. So, whenever she 
was taken out by the farm trainer there were painful scenes of dis- 
cord and the sober-sided people shook their heads more and more. 

" Three years ago I found Lou in disgrace on account of what was 
supposed to be invincible frivolity. I made her acquaintance and 
liked her at once. She has the daintiest and nicest manners of 
any horse I ever saw. She took to me, too, and from that day to 
this ; though I have driven her in all her miles, we have never had 
a quarrel. She needed understanding, trust and sympathy, for, as 
I have said, she is very feminine. There never was a safer 
horse, but she is most ambitious, wanting to go all the time. 
One advantage that Lou has over most horses arises largely from 
the fact that in spite of her dainty airs and grace she is so gentle 
and so true. We can give her the utmost freedom. She wears 



AMERICAN TROTTING HORSE. 77 

no check rein or martingale. Her head is not forced away up 
like the heads of other horses and she goes easy to herself with 
the reins slack on her back." 

She started at Cleveland, July 4, 1903, against the record 
of 2 03f, which the dainty Alix had held for nine long years, and 
though she barely failed to dethrone her, she did so one week 
later, and was hailed as the new Trotting Queen. Twenty days 
later, still at Cleveland, she reduced this to 2.02f , and sturdy 
Cresceus trembled at his approaching downfall. At Brooklyn, 
Aug. 17, the watch only showed 2.03f , but at Readville, Aug. 24, 
she accomplished the trick, and the two-minute trotter had come at 
last. She then returned to her old quarters at Cleveland, and on 
Sept 12 sought by a bold stroke to overthrow Maud S's record of 
2.08f to the old high-wheel sulky, and went in the wonderful time 
of 2.05 ; but as her sulky, though high- wheeled, was not of the old- 
fashioned kind, but a new-fangled one, with ball-bearing hubs and 
pneumatic tires, and as she was accompanied by a pace-maker 
with a dirt-shield in front, the National Trotting Association, on 
Jan. 5, 1904, decided that it was not a record, and that Maud S 
was still the high-wheel champion. 

Lou Dillon, however, did not long enjoy the honor of being the 
only two -minute trotter. Quite unexpected to the public at large, 
Major Delmar dropped into the charmed circle. The grandson ot 
Electioneer, unlike his female rival, was not new to the trotting 
game. He started as a two-year-old in 1899 in three races, but 
failed to win a heat, and as a three year-old he won two stakes and 
second money in the Horse Review Futurity. As a five-year-old, 
he was a very successful campaigner. Out of twelve starts, he won 
nine times, was second once and third twice. His first mile of note 
was at Albany, Aug. 1, 1903, in 2 04f. This he reduced to 2.04 
at New York, Aug. 13; to 2.02 \ at Providence, Sept. 4; to 2. OH 
at Syracuse, Sept. 9, and on Sept. 11, at the same place, to 2.00J. 
At Readville, Sept. 14, he trotted a mile in 2.00f. He was 
then shipped to Empire City, and there sold for $40,000 to E. E. 
Smathers. Under the new ownership he trotted a mile there, on 
Sept. 25, in 2.00. He reduced this record to -1.59f at Mem- 
phis, on October 27, and public curiosity was aroused when it 
was announced that he and Lou Dillon would meet at the Lex- 
ington meeting, Oct. 10. It was a cold raw day, with the wind 
blowing at. the rate of 30 miles an hour, when the first great test 
of the trotting ability of the two came, not in a contest but in an 
effort by each against the wagon record of 2.04f. Major Delmar 
tried first, driven by his owner, and went in 2.03f, reducing 
the record just a second. The utile was a startler. It not only 
seemed an impossible feat, but stood out as one of the greatest 



78 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

performances of any time by a trotter under the conditions. 
Twenty minutes later, however, Delmar's mile sank into insig- 
nificance. Lou Dillon came out not only to beat her own record 
of 2.04f, but to try to eclipse the mile of 2.031 that Major Del- 
mar had gone less than 30 minutes before. The mare went away 
from the wire not overly fast, but with every stride the clip was 
faster, and in one of the grandest finishes ever witnessed, she 
flashed under the wire in the remarkable time of 2.01f , beating 
Delmar's record by just two seconds. These separate contests 
were decisive as to the relative speed of the horses, but as she 
had never competed in an actual race many thought that when 
they were to meet, at the Memphis meeting, Oct. 20, the result 
might be different. But the mare soon settled the question by 
defeating the Major in 2.04|, 2.04f . Last year she was not so 
successful. She started seven times against the watch. At Detroit 
she made efforts to beat 2.05 to wagon, and did it the second time 
of asking. At Cleveland, July 30, she tried again to beat Maud 
S's record, but the best she could do was 2.09£. At Memphis, 
Oct. 18, Major Delmar turned the tables on her, and beat her to 
wagon in straight heats, 2.07, 2.18J. At the same meeting she 
made two efforts to beat 2.01f and failed, but later on made two 
successful efforts in 2.01 } and 2.01. This year she has done 
nothing. 

When we compare her career of two short years, dazzling 
though it be, with the many years service of Flora Temple, 
and Goldsmith Maid, who fought their way to pre-eminence in 
hotly contested and often long drawn-out races, drawing heavy 
high- wheeled sulkies over rough and uneven tracks, the true lover 
of the horse may well ask whether the old ways were not better. 

Shod with aluminum shoes, hitched with the lightest and most 
expensive harness to a low bicycle sulky with ball-bearing hubs 
and pneumatic tires, with a wind-shield to break the force of the 
wind, and narrow strips of canvass hung between the wheels for 
a dirt-shield, accompanied by pace-makers to make the way easy 
for him at every turn, the modern racing machine skims over 
tracks as smooth as ball-room floors, and favored in every pos- 
sible way in his effort to beat the watch, airily places the 
record so made against those made by the heroes of olden time. 
But it may well be questioned whether contests against time 
are beneficial after all. The true intent of horse racing is to 
draw out the best qualities of the horse, both mental and physical, 
and to indicate to breeders the best elements to perpetuate, and as 
the friendly rivalry and strenuous intercourse of public school and 
college life make the coming man, so it is the desperate struggle up 
the homestretch and the hard won victory, when defeat hangs over 



AMERICAN TROTTING HORSE. 



79 



like a cloud, that has given us the game, resolute roadster of to- 
day — the delight of the American gentleman. 

The following brief statistics will show at a glance the wonder- 
ful improvement in the speed of the trotting horse. 

In 1818 the best mile in harness (Boston Blue), 3 m. 00 s. 

In 1824 the best mile under saddle (the Albany Pony), 2 m. 40 s. 

In 1834 the best mile under saddle (Edwin Forrest), 2 m. 31£ s. 

In 1835 the best mile (Oneida Chief, ch. g , Kentucky Hunter), 2 m. 31 s. 

In 1839 the best mile under saddle (Dutchman), 2 m. 28 s. 

In 1845 the best mile (James K. Polk, ch. g., pedigree unknown), 2m. 27s. 

In 1849 the best mile under saddle (Lady Suffolk), 2 m. 26 s. 

In 1853 the best mile in harness (Highland Maid), 2 m. 27 s. 

In 1853 the best mile under saddle (Tacony), 2 m. 25£ s. 

In 1856 the best mile in harness (Flora Temple), 2 m. 24£ s. 

In 1859 the best mile in harness (Flora Temple), 2 m. 19| s. 

In 1859 the best mile in harness (Flora Temple), 2 m. 19i s. 

In 1865 the best mile (Dexter), 2 m. 18£ s. 

In 1866 the best mile (Dexter), 2 m. 18 s. 

In 1867 the best mile in harness (Dexter), 2 m. 17£ s. 

In 1879 the best mile in harness (St. Julien), 2 m. 12| s. 

In 1871 the best mile in harness (Goldsmith Maid), 2 m. 17 s. 

In 1872 the best mile in harness (Goldsmith Maid), 2 m. 16| s. 

In 1874 the best mile in harness (Goldsmith Maid), 2 m. 14 s. 

In 1878 the best mile in harness (Rarus), 2 m. 13£ s. 

In 1880 the best mile in harness (Maud S.), 2 m. 10J s. 

In 1881 the best mile in harness (Maud S.), 2 m. 10£ s. 

In 1884 the best mile in harness (Maud S.), 2 m. 09| s. 

In 1885 the best mile in harness (Maud S.), 2 m. 08| s. 

In 1891 the best mile in harness (Sunol), 2 m. 08| s. 

In 1892 the best mile in harness (Nancy Hanks), 2 m. 04 s. 

In 1894 the best mile in harness (Alix), 2 m. 03| s. 

In 1901 the best mile in harness (Cresceus), 2 m. 02 J s. 

In 1903 the best mile in harness (Lou Dillon), 1 m. 58% s. 



REDUCTION OF THE PACING RECORD. 



Drover, b. g., 
Fanny Ellsler, gr. m., 
Unknown, ch. g., 
Pet, rn. g., . 
Pet, rn. g., . 
Pet, rn. g., . 
Pocahontas, ch. m., 
Sleepy George, b. g., 
Sweetzer, gr. g., . 
Sleepy Tom, ch. g., 
Billy Corbeau, blk. g. 
Sleepy Tom, ch. g., 
Little Brown Jug, br. 
Johnston, b. g., . 
Johnston, b. g., . 
Direct, blk. s., 
Hal Pointer, b. g., 
Mascot, b. g., 



o saddle) 



New Jersey, Oct. 3, 1339, 
Albany, N. Y., Aug. 2, 1844, 
New Jersey, Aug. 2, 1844, . 
Long Island, N. Y., Aug. 2, 1851, 
Long Island, N. Y., Sept. 9, 1852, 
Long Island, N. Y., Sept., 1852, 
Long Island, N. Y., June 21, 1855 
Rochester, N. Y., Aug. 7, 1879, 
Oakland, Cal., Dec. 25, 1878, 
Columbus, O., July 16, 1879, 

1868, 

Chicago, 111., July 25, 1879, . 
Hartford, Conn., Aug. 24, 1881, 
Chicago, 111., Oct. 9, 1883, . 
Chicago, 111., Oct. 9, 1384, . 
Independence, la., Sept. 4, 1891, 
Chicago, 111., Aug. 18, 1892, 
Terre Haute, Ind., Sept. 19, 1892, 



2.28 

2.27£ 

2.23 

2.21 

2.19i 

2.18i 

2.17* 

2.15£ 

2.15 

2.14J 

2.14i 

2.12J 

2,lli 

2.10 

2.06J 

2.06 

2.05| 

2.04 



80 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



Flying Jim, b. g., 
Robert J., b. g., . 
Robert J., b. g., . 
Robert J., b. g., . 
John R. Gentry, b. s., . 
John R. Gentry, b. s., . 
Star Pointer, b. s 



Chicago, 111., Sept. 15, 1893, . 2.04 

Fort Wayne, Ind., Aug. 31, 1894, 2.031 

Indianapolis, Ind., Sept. 5, 1894, . 2.03.} 

Terre Haute, Ind , Sept. 14, 1894, 2 01^ 

Glens Falls, N. Y., Sept. 10, 1896, 2.0U 

Portland, Me., Sept. 24, 1896, . 2.00* 

Readville, Mass., Aug. 28, 1897, . 1.594- 



Dan Patch, b. s., . . . Lexington, Ky., Oct. 7, 1905, . . 1.55% 

Since the establishment of trotting as a national sport there have 
been only eight horses that have been recognized as kiugs and 
queens of the trotting turf — whose names have been familiar as 
household words even to those who never set foot on a race-track 
or read the sporting columns of the newspaper, viz., Lady Suffolk, 
Flora Temple, Dexter, G-oldsmith Maid, Rarus, Maud S., Nancy 
Hanks and Cresceus, a brilliant octave, the mention of whose 
names spans the memories of half a century and links the recollec- 
tions of the veteran raconteur to the present day. There have 
been other brilliant performers who have reduced records and won 
renown, but only these eight have reigned in the public heart. Of 
all the brilliant coterie, no name is even now mentioned with 
greater respect than Lady Suffolk, and the three next greatest 
favorites have been her successors in the order named. Why this 
should be so it is not easy to say, for Rarus, Maud S., Nancy- 
Hanks and Cresceus were all consistent performers, and Maud 
S., in addition, was almost as lovable as dear old Lady Suffolk. 
The broadening out of the circuit and the multitude of horses on 
the turf may account for this fact, on the principle that it is easier 
to be the great man of a village than of the large city, and that the 
tracks around New York and Philadelphia no longer hold the 
prominence that they once possessed. 

When it is considered that by far the greater portion of the 
best bred colts are kept for driving purposes or the stud, and that 
very few even of the most promising trotters are kept long on the 
turf, the enormous increase in the number of fast horses America 
is annually producing is still more marked. But with all this the 
demand for fast driving horses has been so great that the supply is 
not equal to the demand, and the increase in prices has been even 
proportionately greater. 

The money invested in horseflesh for road purposes only may be 
judged by the amount spent by the late Mr. Robert Bonner, a gentle- 
man who never permitted any of his horses to trot for money, but 
kept them solely for his own driving. For Pocahontas Mr. Bonner 
gave $35,000 and another horse; Rarus cost him $36,000; for 
Dexter he paid $33,000; Edward Everett, $20,000; Startle, 
$20,000; Edwin Forrest, $16,000; Lady Stout, $15,000; Grafton, 
$15,000; Bruno, $15 000; the Auburn horse, $13,000; Wellesley 
Boy, $12,000; Joe Elliott, $10,000; Maud Macy, $10,000 ; Mam- 
brino Bertie, $10,000 ; Dick Jamison, $10,000 ; Maybird, $9500: 



AMERICAN TROTTING HORSE. 



81 



Lantern and Light, $9000; Music, $8000; three full sisters to 
Dexter, $6500; Molsey, $1000; Peerless, $5500; Lady Palmer, 
$5000 ; Prince Imperial, son of the famous Flora Temple, $5000 ; 
Flatbush Maid, $4000 ; Eric, $4000 ; John Taylor, $3500 j Lady 
Woodruff, $3000; Centennial, $3000; Lucy Cuyl- r, $3000; 
Walton, $3000; the Canada roan mare, $3000; Keen Jim, $2800; 
Major Morton, $2500 ; the Carpenter horse, $2200; the Boston 
gray team, $2000; Elsie Vernier, $2000; Ada Duroc, $2000; Ella 
Sherwood, $1600; Hebe, Grafton's dam, $1500; Carl Burr, 
$1200; Malice, $1200 ; Honest Peter, $1200 ; dam of the Morse 
colt, $1200 ; Uncle Sim, $1000 ; dam of Clara G., $1000 ; Princess, 
$1000. The list of itself amounts to $377,700. But in addition 
to those mentioned Mr. Bonner had a large number of fashionably 
bred brood mares, and several young mares and geldings of great 
speed that he purchased at prices ranging below $1000. 

That the trotting turf has been of inestimable benefit to the 
great breeding interests of the country cannot be denied. It has 
already added millions of dollars to the material wealth of the 
country, and if the exportation of American horses to Europe in- 
creases as rapidly in the next few years as it has done during the 
year now fast drawing to a close, the raising of horses will be 
among the most important of American industries. But there is 
almost always a dark side to every picture. 

Up to 1870 there had been no co-operation between the man- 
agement of the different trotting courses of the United States. A 
course might rule a driver or owner off its track for a palpable 
fraud, but the punishment virtually amounted to nothing, as he 
could immediately go to another course on the fame footing as the 
honestest man there. Is it any wonder that under this want of 
system fraud oftentimes ruled with a high hand, and when exposed 
laughed at those who had at heart the best interests of the turf? 

It became evident that some plan must be devised to check the 
growing flood of corruption which threatened to engulf the trotting 
turf, and a call was issued to the different trotting associations of 
the United States to send delegates to a convention to be held in 
New York to promote the best interests of the trotting turf. The 
convention met in February, 1870, and formally organized the 
" National Association for the Promotion of the Interests of the 
American Trotting Turf." Amasa Sprague, the great Rhode Island 
manufacturer, was elected president of the association, rules for the 
management of all the tracks belonging to the association were 
adopted, and a board of appeals constituted, to whom all disputes 
and doubtful question^ were to be referred. This organization still 
exists, and its influence fur good has been immense. Nearly all 
the principal tracks in the country belong to it and act together in 
perfect harmony. And now if any one is ruled off a track the 



82 THE AMERICAN TROTTING HORSE. 

punishment is by no means a light one, for expulsion from one 
track means expulsion from all. 

The future of the trotting turf is full of bright omens. The 
clouds of prejudice and suspicion, which so long overhung it, are 
drifting rapidly away, and many of our leading scholars and thinkers 
are beginning to see that the turf is not as bad as it has been 
depicted. In a recent address President Clark, of Amherst College, 
makes the following sensible remarks : " With suitable preparation 
and management, not only does a healthy horse suffer no distress 
from trotting a moderate distance at the top of his speed, but enjoys 
it as highly as his driver. The match trotter is peculiarly gifted 
with powers of locomotion, and his wonderful mechanism can only 
be appreciated when in full operation. To most persons a closely- 
contested trot is a beautiful and attractive spectacle, and experience 
proves that nothing affords a more delightful or harmless amuse- 
ment for the people, provided the surroundings and associations 
are o the proper kind. The usual accompaniments of the race- 
course — quarrelling, profanity, intoxication, gambling, and public 
betting — may and should always be everywhere forbidden and pre- 
vented. The morals of the community are of more consequence 
than the breeds of horses. There is no more occasion for immor- 
ality in connection with a trotting match, than in connection with 
an exhibition of skill and swiftness in skating." 

But will these bright omens be fulfilled ? Who can tell ? One 
thing is certain : the fate of the turf rests not with its enemies, but 
its friends. The outrageous Edwin Forrest case at Utica, in 1878, 
inflicted a far deadlier wound than bigoted opposition or rancorous 
diatribe could possibly have done, and if the races are to be decided 
in the pool-box and not upon the track, if horses are to be pulled iu 
order to save records, if drivers are allowed to form corrupt com- 
binations, and the interests of the owners are treated as naught, the 
turf will sink to a lower condition than it was before the National 
Association was formed. But if the reform movement which was 
then inaugurated is carried on in the spirit in which it was beguu ; 
if fraud, when exposed, is rigorously punished, no matter who may 
be the sufferer ; if the owners and breeders come to the front and 
the gamblers are sent to the rear, then shall the trotting turf become 
a blessing and not a curse, and when hereafter the foreigner visiting 
these shores shall ask to see the productions of American genius 
and enterprise, he shall behold none more truly characteristic, none 
more worthy of his admiration, than the Trotting Horse of America- 



MEMORANDUM. 



MEMORANDUM. 



MEMORANDUM. 



MEMORANDUM. 



SOME USEFUL HINTS, SUGGESTIONS AND OPINIONS 
ON TRAINING AND CONDITIONING. 

COMPILED PROM VARIOUS SOURCES. 



" No man is fit to handle colts or horses unless he has perfect 
control of his temper, for you can do much more with coaxing than 
you can with harsh treatment ; for, when an animal becomes afraid 
of his trainer, he loses confidence and will not improve in that 
man's hands. This applies to aged horses as well as colts." — 
A. J. Feek. 

11 Further than halter-breaking I have never thought necessary 
during the first year. The fall and winter after weaning, they 
should have all they will eat, and on every dry day they should run 
out in the fields and take all the exercise they will; for plenty of 
food and plenty of exercise are equally necessary to accomplish the 
best results. 

"There is no process, not even the starving process, that I think 
more injurious to the colt than over- feeding, with little or no exer- 
cise. The legs cannot grow and develop without plenty of gallop- 
ing, and if well fed and turned out in the fields in good weather, 
they will run and play." — A. J. McKimmin. 

" The first thing in training a horse is to make a careful study 
of the animal, learning all his peculiarities, faults, weaknesses, 
habits, etc. I think one vital mistake made by men training horses 
is that they do not seem to think that horses are made of flesh and 
blood, and very nearly human in all their ways/' — John Splan. 

"Two-thirds of the promising and fashionably -bred colts are 
ruined through mismanagement, which includes over-conditioning, 
bad shoeing, excessive use of boots, weights and ointments, which 
incite and weaken, through increased growth, the hoof, one of the 
most fruitful sources of malformation. " — Alexander Dunbar. 

"It used to be a custom to send a three- month-old colt, half- 
halter broken, and give him one month to complete his education, 

87 



88 SOME USEFUL HINTS, SUGGESTIONS, ETC., 

and return it fit and safe for any use. This was a great mistake; 
the man had either to half kill the colt or return him half broken, 
or perhaps both. It takes a bright, intelligent boy ten or fifteen 
years to complete a good education, and it can hardly be called fair 
to expect a dumb beast to be fit to graduate at the end of a month. 
A colt, when thoroughly broken, should have a graceful, easy car- 
riage, a pleasant mouth, be obedient, and yield promptly to every 
requirement. He should go at his work cheerfully, and with as 
much apparent pleasure as his driver takes in riding after him. By 
such behavior he would indicate at once that he was an educated 
horse, and not an abused and half-killed brute. To take a green 
colt and return him in this condition requires considerable time — 
at least three months." — H. 0. Woodnutt. 

"The commencement of Lady Suffolk's history interested those 
who remembered her performances five-and-twenty years before, 
and revived the discussion about the forcing system and early 
maturity. It was admitted that David Bryant trotted the mare 
too much in her first season; but some still held that early ma- 
turity was a good thing, and predicted that it will be hereafter one 
of the chief aims of the breeders. I am somewhat afraid that it 
will; and being convinced that it will be mischievous, and end in 
the premature decay of many good horses, I have protested against 
it. The argument is this : If a colt can be made as good at three 
years old as another will be at five or six, there is a great saving 
of time and expense. Now, this is not the proper way to state the 
question; for a colt may be as fast at three as another is at five or 
six, and still be an inferior horse; and it is my opinion that the 
method adopted to make him at three equal to what the other will 
be at six is almost certain to render him an inferior animal as re- 
gards duration." — Hiram Woodruff. 

"In regard to colts, I have previously observed that the forcing 
system in the raising of trotters was not advisable. I am satisfied 
that it is not only expense laid out to no use, but for a purpose 
which is likely to be mischievous. Very early maturity is only to 
be attained accompanied with the liability, the almost certainty, of 
corresponding early decay; and, to achieve such excellence as that 
to which Dutchman attained, the trotting horse must have all his 
powers long after the period at which most running horses have 
left the turf. The reason is obvious. The trotter has to be edu- 
cated up to his best and strongest rate, and the education takes 
many years. Dutchman improved until he was ten or eleven years 
old, and it may be questioned whether his very best capabilities 
were ever brought out; for the change into new hands just when 



ON TRAINING AND CONDITIONING- 89 

he had come to the highest pitch that we know of was not alto- 
gether favorable to continued advance. Therefore, when a trotting 
horse has attained the age of seven, and is aged, or arrived at 
natural maturity, he has only just reached that stage when we may 
begin to expect the development of his finest powers ; and that de- 
velopment, according to my experience, is likely to be gradual, and 
to continue for a long time. No doubt many horses never improve 
after they are seven; and in some cases the speed comes to them 
all at once, as the saying is. In the former, the constitution, 
breeding or form is probably defective. A century of work would 
not improve some horses. They get to their best early, and only 
because their best is very bad." — Hiram Woodruff. 

" Many trainers ought never to be allowed to get into a sulky in 
possession of a whip. They are so constituted that they cannot 
control their temper, and they often whip when there is no better 
reason for it than the gratification which the doing so yields their 
ill-nature. One single cut with the whip at the wrong time will 
not be forgotten by some horses during a whole season, and may 
cause the horse to become timid and irritable — may, in fact, ulti- 
mately ruin him — causing him to prove unreliable, both as regards 
gait and everything else considered as exceptionally valuable." — 
Farmers' Home Journal. 

"Drivers are born, not made, and it is impossible to teach a man 
so that he can get up behind a horse and drive him well unless he 
has the natural gift; and only this, with experience, makes a good 
driver. You want a steady, firm hand, and yet a light one. You 
want a firm hand, but not a rigid, unyielding one, for a certain 
ease is necessary to give the horse confidence. If the driver be 
nervous and unsteady, the horse will soon know it, and his stead- 
iness will be affected by it. Never take more hold on the horse 
than is necessary to give him confidence, and to hold him steady 
and safe. A good driver must be a good judge of pace and of 
distance, cool-headed, with presence of mind, and able to take in a 
situation at a glance and act upon it instantly. He must be ready 
to see an advantage the moment it presents itself, and seize it the 
moment he sees it. All this, as I have said, cannot be learned; 
there are certain qualities of the brain and the hand that must in 
a degree be natural to the man, though they may be perfected by 
acquirement. A driver may be good when going at a 2.40 gait, 
but the same man may be all at sea when going at a 2.16 gait. 
The difference in results that will follow a move at 2.40 gait and 
that which may follow a move at 2.20 gait is marvellous." — Charles 
Marvin. 



90 SOME USEFUL HINTS, SUGGESTIONS, ETC., 

" In order that a fast horse should be under circumstances to do 
his best, he should be as much at his ease in his harness and gen- 
eral rig as possible. If he is not, he is placed at almost as much 
disadvantage as if sore or stiff, or suffering from some bodily ail- 
ment. You may see horses brought out of the stable to trot, with 
a very tight check to keep their heads up, and a tight martingale 
to keep it down. Such a horse is in irons; and when to this is 
added a dead drag at the reins, and no movement of the bit from 
end to end, I cannot see how he should do his best. People talk 
about a steady, bracing pull; but, in my opinion, that is not the 
right way to drive a trotter. There is a great difference between 
letting go of your horse's head and keeping up one dull, deadening 
pull all the time." — -Hiram Woodruff. 

" Bits are often kept in places to which the frost penetrates in very 
cold weather. The bits become frosted ; and, without a thought of 
what he is doing, the man claps a frosted steel bit into the horse's 
mouth. The consequence is a sore mouth, just about as certainly as if 
the bit had been nearly at a red heat; and then the man bothers his 
brains to find out what caused it. If he had put the frozen bit 
into his own mouth, it would have brought the inner skin of the 
lips away with it, and then he would have felt the mischief. In 
very cold weather, take your bits to the fire, and be sure that there 
is no frost in the steel when the bit is placed in your horse's 
mouth/' — Hiram Woodruff. 

" My experience has been that no horse can be successfully 
driven with anything like a severe bit. I never saw one that was 
even broken of the habit of pulling in that way. If you put a severe 
bit in the horse's mouth and pull on it it makes the horse mad and 
irritates him ; the further you drive him and the harder you pull 
him, the more he will pull against it. When I was a boy, almost every 
trotter I saw would pull in a disagreeable manner when being 
driven at top speed. At the present time I cannot think of one 
horse that is anything like first-class, that pulls enough to make it 
disagreeable for a man at any time. A great many people think 
that every horse should be driven with an overcheck. I can re- 
member when I had the same opinion myself. I am now satisfied 
that it is a serious mistake. There are a great many horses that 
will not take kindly to an overcheck, and if you insist on using it on 
them it will sooner or later spoil the horse's disposition to a great 
extent." — John Splan. 

"The mouth is now fine and sensitive; and it ought to be kept 
so, because this is the great organ of communication between a 
good driver and the trotter, when he is cultivated and improved 



ON TRAINING AND CONDITIONING. 91 

into a fast horse. What you want the trotter to do when he is at 
speed is to be got into him through his mouth. You may encour- 
age him by speaking to him, or sting him into a greater effort with 
the whip ; but neither of these is half as good as the play upon the 
reins, with which you let him know what you want through his 
lively, sensitive mouth. You are then to keep in constant mind 
the necessity of not impairing the colt's mouth by rough handling 
of the reins. If you pull and lug at the bit, the colt, in his efforts 
to resist what hurts him, will very soon pull, too, for he will find 
out that this numbs and deadens the jaws ; but this is at the 
expense of ruination to the mouth. It will become hard and 
insensible ; and the first and the largest part of the mischief which 
goes towards the making of a hard puller is done/' — Hiram 
Woodruff. 

" Checks and bits have a good deal to do with balancing the 
horse, and the less restraint or annoyance these appliances give the 
horse the better. I like plain bits. If you cannot control a horse 
with a plain bit, you have a small chance of making a trotter of 
him at all. Such bits as the 'Perfection,' 'Rockwell,' etc., I con- 
sider pernicious contrivances. There are cases where a horse has 
improved with a severe bit, but they are exceptional. With what 
extreme measures have achieved I do not quarrel, but I do argue 
against using artificial and unusual appliances unnecessarily, and 
this applies not only to bits, checks, shoes, weights, etc., but to 
everything connected with training." — Charles Marvin. 

" The stallion (Kemble Jackson) was then sent to me to be 
handled j and, in order to prevent him from throwing down his 
head between his knees when he broke, the well-known Kemble- 
Jackson check, since in use all over this country, and introduced 
in England also, was invented. It answered well in this case, and 
must always be of great use in similar ones ; but I think it is often 
applied in cases where it is not only unnecessary, but does harm 
instead of good." — Hiram Woodruff. 

" I would learn every colt or horse to drive with and without 
blinds or winkers/' — A. J. Feeh. 

" A great deal has been written and said relative to the use of 
blinders. While the arguments for their discontinuance are ap- 
parently the stronger, I must acknowledge that, in my practice, 
more horses have gone better with than without them." — Joseph 
Cairn Simpson. 

" How far to work a colt, I cannot tell you any more than I can 
how big a lump of chalk is. Colts differ in size, stamina, disposi- 



92 SOME USEFUL HINTS, SUGGESTIONS, ETC., 

tion and strength. Some have got to indulge in a little foolishness 
before they are ready to do right — play with the birds along the 
fence, or the shadows of the poles — while others are strict business 
all the time. It is safe enough to figure not to exceed four miles 
with any colt and not less than two and one-half. With the proper 
care, such as walking and turning out, colts do not need much 
jogging. They are ready to speed very soon after getting to the 
track." — Thomas J. Dunbar. 

" I think it is a mistake to jog horses too far. From three to 
five miles a day is ordinarily sufficient for most horses, except that 
on one day in each week it is best to jog seven or eight miles, so 
the horse will get a little leg weary. Some days three miles and 
some four and five miles; but I do not believe in slow jogging for 
more than one mile. After going the first mile, it is best to let 
them jog along good and strong, as I am satisfied that from three 
to five miles stiff jogging will do a horse more good than twenty 
miles at a slow, poky gait. I also think a great many horses are 
jogged so far and slow that it takes away their speed; besides, it 
gets monotonous to the horse, and he does not take his work as 
cheerfully as a horse that is jogged short and lively." — Edward F. 
Geers. 

"The object of the driver should then be to support him with 
as little pull as possible, but still to support him. The horse with 
a good mouth will always feel the driver's hand ; and, when the 
latter is as skillful as he ought to be for the handling of the first- 
rate, fast trotter, he may play upon the rein with a touch like that 
of a harper upon the strings, and the horse will answer every touch 
with the music of the feet and wheels." — Hiram Woodruff. 

" There is no cure for a pulling horse, however, like that of not 
pulling against him ; though it adds to a person's steadiness of 
nerve to know that he has the appliances to stop a horse, should 
gentleness not prevail. A horse can never be radically cured of 
this propensity to pull, unless the driver is determined not to 
gratify the morbid habit, but to ease away whenever he rushes for 
the bit, and teach him that his comfort and ease of going is de- 
pendent on his ceasing to pull. The celebrated English jockey, 
Chiffney, wrote a treatise on riding a race horse with a slack rein. 
I have never been fortunate enough to see it; but, judging from 
the success he met with in ' his mounts/ his practice indicated the 
truth of this theory." — Joseph Cairn Simpson. 

"It is often said that a horse cannot pull hard and last; and this 
is contrary to the facts I am about to mention. Trustee lasted; 



ON TRAINING AND CONDITIONING. 93 

and he was a hard puller. Captain McGowan lasted; and he is 
the hardest-pulling horse in America, I suppose. Dexter pulls a 
pound or two, I can assure you; and he has shown his capacity to 
go on. The truth is, that the pulling horses last well enough, but 
the drivers do not last so long. It is just so with the runners. 
Look at English Eclipse, who 'pulled a ton/ as the saying has it, 
when he distanced his fields. Look at Norfolk, a desperate hard 
puller, but, nevertheless, a thorough stayer. I mention these in- 
stances in order that you may not be led away by a theory that is 
groundless. To say that a horse can't stay because he pulls, is not 
true. To say that he might stay as well if he did not pull so hard, 
and that he would be much more pleasant to ride or drive, is the 
correct thing." — Hiram Woodruff. 

" As the development and improvement of the fast trotter has 
exerted, and must continue to exert, a vast influence upon the 
general horse stock of the country, used for road purposes, it is 
necessary to consider another qualification besides those of speed 
and bottom. A horse may be fast on the course before a light 
sulky, just as a running horse may be very speedy for a mile with 
about a hundred pounds on his back, but not calculated for general 
use on the road, or to improve the common road stock as a stallion. 
The ability to pull weight is a quality of exceeding value ; and, 
when it is found in connection with speed and stoutness, we may 
safely say that the three prime characteristics of the harness horse 
are obtained. It is to be remembered that the ability of which I 
speak is that which can pull at a great rate ; so that putting on 
extra weight, up to a reasonable point, shall make no very great 
difference in the performance of the trotter. Almost any horse can 
pull a moderate weight at a slow pace on a good road; but those 
that can take along about four hundred pounds, and keep the pace 
good for two or three miles, are, and always have been, rather 
scarce." — Hiram Woodruff. 

"It will be remembered that I have spoken of three prime 
qualities in the trotting horse; viz., speed, bottom and the power 
to pull weight. I was already confident that little Flora possessed 
the last, as well as the other two. People are apt to think that 
great size is demanded for a weight-puller, but there are plenty of 
notable instances to show that this is a mistake. Still, though 
there need not be great size, and though some big horses are the 
very worst of weight-pullers, coming right back as soon as they are 
required to take along a wagon and a heavy man, strength is cer- 
tainly demanded. This strength in small horses is the result of a 
nice adaptation of parts, together with particular power in the loin 



94 SOME USEFUL HINTS, SUGGESTIONS, ETC., 

and hind- quarters. If a little horse of that sort be particularly ex- 
amined, it will commonly be found that, though they are low, they 
are long in all the moving parts ; and their quarters are generally 
as big, and sometimes a deal bigger, than those of many much 
larger horses." — Hiram Woodruff. 

" Mere bulk is also useless. Everybody must have seen horses 
big enough to pull a ton, to look at, and able to trot very fast in a 
sulky, or to a skeleton wagon, but unable to act to advantage to 
three or four hundred pounds. The weight-pullers, as a general 
rule, are of medium size, with a fine, quick stroke, not over long, 
and they bend the knees well. They need to be spirited goers, 
keeping well up to their work all the time ; and, unless their tem- 
per and pluck are both good, they will sulk, or give up from faint- 
heartedness, when they feel the weight, and the speed begins to 
tell. But though mere bulk is useless for the purpose, a fair 
amount of substance is required; and it will be found in nearly 
every case that, though the weight-puller may not have a large 
frame, he possesses a large muscular development. Long striders 
are seldom good at weight. Being greatly extended, with a load 
behind to be pulled along, they are unable to recover, and shove 
their haunches in quick, without extra exertion, under which they 
soon tire. Here they more than lose in time of stroke what they 
gain in space, and loiter, as it were, in their action." — Hiram 
Woodruff. 

"A horse learns more in one lesson given in a race than a 
month's work alone will do. The fact is, you must work them in 
company as much as you can ; it is the only proper way. Then 
you can find out his strong points and his weaknesses." — Varick. 

" Another suggestion I would make is : If you have a horse that 
cannot trot better than 2.14 or 2.15, and you are in a race against 
horses that can trot in 2.10 or 2.12 and happen to get away well, 
and trotting second to a horse you know can go in 2.10, it is bad 
policy to try to drive your horse faster than he can go in chasing 
the 2.10 horse. If you do this, you will certainly get left, as there 
is no chance for you to win, and you are apt to make a mistake, 
and other horses may come on and beat you for a place. A great 
many horses lose races they could win if the driver had patience to 
sit still a little longer." — Edward F. Geers. 

" In the training of a horse to bring him to his highest state of 
condition, what he eats and drinks cuts a very important figure. 
There are some horses that, from one cause or another, will not eat 
enough to stand the severe preparation; but, as a rule, I think 



ON TRAINING AND CONDITIONING. 95 

most horses eat too much. I think eating gets to be a habit with 
some of them, and a bad habit at that. If a horse is inclined to 
be * washy/ sweat freely and lose his flesh, that horse, I think, 
needs more food than one of the opposite disposition. While 
Rams was a delicate-looking horse, and people often asked me if 
he was a good feeder, he was the greatest feeder for a race-horse I 
ever saw. Through all his severe campaigns with me, I never saw 
him when he was not ready to eat, and in the hardest part of the 
season I fed him about fifteen pounds of oats a day. In their 
stomachs horses differ more from the human being than perhaps 
in any other part of their physical structure. A man in the course 
of twenty-four hours will take into his stomach more different kinds 
and sorts of food than a horse would in a lifetime, and for that 
reason I think what a horse does take has more effect on him than 
it otherwise would. Whatever a horse eats should be of the clean- 
est and best. I think, on an average, that ten pounds of oats a 
day, with a fair amount of hay, is enough for a horse to be trained 
on. I think that all horses in the training season should have 
plenty of grass. In winter I like carrots in small quantities, and 
for a change boiled oats have proved themselves a very satisfactory 
food to me. Some people say, ' What about bran V I am a good 
deal like Dr. Weldon about that; sawdust will answer the purpose 
just as well, and it is a good deal cheaper." — John Splan. 

A gentleman connected with the American Express Company in- 
formed me that when horses used in the company's business in 
New York — where they are fed on oats and hay — give out, they 
are sent to Buffalo to be recruited. The system of feeding there 
which invariably improves the horses is, morning and noon, a mod- 
erate feed of oats and hay; at night a hall-bushel of hay cut fine, 
two quarts of wheat bran and two quarts of corn meal mixed to- 
gether, with a small handful of salt, and the whole mess mixed with 
hot water and fed when cold/' — Western Rural. 

"It is my conviction that flesh can only be got off in the spring 
by slow degrees with safety. The physicking and sweating some- 
times recommended, and often resorted to, are mischievous, in my 
opinion ; and I know that anything like rapid work and hurry at 
the beginning, with a horse overfed during the winter, and very 
likely infirm in his legs, will be apt to knock him off before he has 
got the use of them, or the muscles and sinews have recovered 
much of their tone." — Hiram Woodruff. 

" I think many cases of horses being distressed and dried up are 
caused by the men putting too much clothing on them. I think, 
as a rule, we are apt to use too much, and it is a detriment to them. 



96 SOME HINTS ON TRAINING AND CONDITIONING. 

" Again, a horse would seem to be all burned up inside, and yet 
would not sweat a drop, and would seem to be choked for the want 
of water. I think, as a rule, there are more horses injured for the 
want of water than there are in giving it to them in the proper 
way. A man must use judgment. I have many times given a 
horse a bucket half full, sometimes a full one, then throw the 
blankets on him and walk him smartly, say for five minutes, and 
the sweat would pour out of him from his head to his tail, then 
strip and scrape him and rub the water out nicely and he would 
act like another horse." — A. J. Feek. 

" For a stimulant to give a horse I formerly used cherry wine, 
whisky, brandy, etc., but all of these I discarded years ago, the 
after effect is so bad. It has the same effect on a horse it does on 
a man — first stimulating, then depressing. When any stimulation 
is necessary, I use a homoeopathic preparation — a few drops on the 
tongue — and the effect is not only immediate but permanent, and 
is beneficial and no bad effect afterward. This has helped me to 
win many a long and hard race." — A. J. Feek. 



RULES FOR TRACK LAYING. 



We have received numerous inquiries recently as to the method 
of laying out race tracks. The following directions will be found 
useful : 

A Third-mile Track. — The usual rule for half-mile tracks is 
to have the stretches and turns of equal length. If the same rule 
is observed in laying out a third-of-a-mile track, each stretch and 
turn should measure 440 feet. Therefore, two stakes should be 
driven where one of the stretches is to be located, 440 feet apart. 
The opposite stretch then should be staked out, parallel to the 
first, and 274 feet across at either end. A wire 237 feet in length 
should be made fast to a post placed equally distant from the end 
of either stretch, and the turns staked as directed in laying out 
other tracks. The wire should be accurately measured, which may 
be best done with a long steel tape measure. Sufficient length 
should be allowed so that several turns may be made around a 
stick at the end, and also a loop to slip over a spike to be driven in 
the upper end of the turning stake. One end of the wire should 
be taken and placed upon the stake at the end of the stretch, while 
an assistant with the other end proceeds toward the end of the 
opposite stretch. When the wire has been tightly drawn, the 
turning stake should be located in exact line with the stakes at the 
end of the stretches and firmly guyed in every direction. After 
the circuit has been made and the stakes driven for the turn, the 
novice will probably be surprised to find the wire is from six to 
eighteen inches too long from stretching. If this should be the 
case, it should be shortened, so that it will exactly reach the stake 
at the end of the stretch, and the turn corrected. After the track 
is laid out, it should always be carefully measured three feet from 
the stakes before construction is commenced. If this is done with 
a chain, it will be found necessary to have as many as three assist- 
ants, to make sure that the chain follows the curve at the turns. 

A Half-mile Track. — Draw the parallel lines 600 feet long 
and 452 feet 5 inches apart. Half-way between the extreme ends 
of the two parallel lines drive a stake, then loop a wire around the 

7 97 



98 RULES FOR TRACK LAYING. 

stake long enough to reach to either side. Then make a true 
curve with the wire, putting down a stake as often as a fence post 
is needed. When this operation is finished at both ends of the 
600-foot parallel lines the track is laid out. The inside fence will 
rest exactly on the line drawn, but the track must measure a half- 
mile three feet from the fence. The turns should be thrown up an 
inch to the foot. The stretches may be anywhere from forty-five 
to sixty feet. 

A Mile Track. — Draw a line through an oblong centre 440 
yards in length, setting a stake at each end. Then draw a line on 
either side of the first line, exactly parallel with and 417 feet 2 
inches from it, setting stakes at either end of them. You will 
then have an oblong square 440 yards long and 384 feet 4 inches 
wide. At each end of these three lines you will now set stakes. 
Now fasten a cord or wire 417 feet 2 inches long to the centre 
stake of your parallelogram, and then describe a half-circle, driving 
stakes as often as you wish to set a fence post. When the circle 
is made at both ends of your parallelogram you will have two 
straight sides and two circles, which, when measured three feet 
from the fence, will be exactly a mile. The turns should be thrown 
up an inch to the foot. — Western Horseman, May 8, 1901. 



WHAT TO DO BEFORE THE VETERINARY SURGEON 

COMES. 

By GEORGE FLEMING, F.R.C.V.S. 



Those who own or have much to do with animals of various 
kinds, know only too well at times how seriously accidents or dis- 
ease may diminish the value of these, and cause much incon- 
venience ; and this loss and inconvenience are all the greater in 
proportion to the worth of these creatures, either as food producers, 
servants, companions, or pets. For the treatment of casualties and 
maladies, when they are at all of a grave kind, the services of the 
veterinary surgeon are necessary, if permanent impairment, pro- 
tracted recovery, or even death, is to be averted. With the great 
advance which has been made of late years in veterinary medicine 
and surgery, owners of animals have benefited to a corresponding 
extent, while the animals themselves have had their sufferings 
abridged and diminished very considerably. 

But it is obvious that accidents may occur, or diseases that run 
their course very rapidly may set in, which demand immediate at- 
tention to prevent serious or irreparable consequences; and as 
veterinary aid may not be immediately forthcoming, in the interests 
of humanity, not less than in their own, the owners of animals 
should not be altogether ignorant of what is necessary to be done 
in such emergencies. But while insisting upon their .possessing 
sufficient knowledge to enable them to give such assistance as may 
for the time being obviate danger, we are far from advising them 
to dispense with the skill and advice of a competent veterinary sur- 
geon whenever the case appears to demand his services. Of course, 
it is difficult to say when these services may or may not be neces- 
sary, as what might seem a very trivial accident or ailment may 
prove to be of the gravest kind. It is, therefore, advisable in 
accident or disease, after rendering all the help the amateur is 
capable of, to consult the veterinary surgeon in good time, and not 
delay until it is too late and his knowledge unavailing. Great 
numbers of valuable animals are annually lost, not only through 
the carelessness or ignorance of their owners or attendants, but also 
through unjustifiable delay in sending for the veterinary surgeon, 
or dispensing with his services altogether from motives of economy. 
More especially is this the case with regard to such creatures as the 

tOFC. 



100 WHAT TO DO BEFORE THE 

sheep and pig, which are usually left to the mercy of shepherds 
and uneducated persons, who, however worthy they may be in other 
respects, yet know nothing or next to nothing of medicine or sur- 
gery, and are consequently far more likely to do harm than good by 
their interference, particularly in the matter of disease. 

It will therefore be understood that the following hints are not 
meant to enable non-veterinary people to " doctor " animals, but 
merely to put them in a position to act usefully in emergencies, be- 
fore the veterinary surgeon comes. 

Wounds. — Animals, and especially horses, are very often 
wounded, and the seriousness of the wound will depend not only 
upon its extent and character, but also upon the part in which it is 
made, and especially on the amount of bleeding that takes place. 
With regard to character, wounds are incised, lacerated, contused, 
and punctured. 

Incised wounds are clean cut by some sharp body, and the parts 
are merely cut through, not torn or bruised ; they are made by 
glass, knife, scythe, or any other keen-edged instrument or body, 
and do not often contain foreign matters, as dirt, grit, &c. If clean, 
and not extensive, and the bleeding slight, they may not require 
anything done to them until the veterinary surgeon arrives, except 
keeping them clean. If there is bleeding, cold water may be ap- 
plied, and the edges of the wound brought as near to each other 
as possible by means of a bandage, by pins passed through the lips 
of the wound at intervals of an inch or so, and twine twisted round 
them, or by stitches with a strong needle and thick thread. Should 
the bleeding be profuse, steps must be actively taken to check it 
until proper aid is procured. Pressure must be made by plugging 
the wound with tow, cotton-wool, lint, or a handkerchief, if there 
be space ; if the wound be in a limb, then bandaging the part 
tightly with a handkerchief may check the hemorrhage for the 
time ', if it does not, then severe pressure should be made on the 
course of the large vessels above the wound, by making a bandage 
or handkerchief into a firm roll, placing it over the vessels — which 
are always on the inside of the limb — and securing it there by 
another bandage. The animal should be kept quiet. 

Lacerated wounds are generally more serious than incised wounds, 
as the parts are torn and jagged. They are produced by hooks, 
nails, bites, kicks, sharp prominences, stakes in fields, &c. There 
is seldom so much bleeding as in incised wounds, the vessels being 
torn instead of cut. They are serious from their extent, the parts 
injured, and the after consequences. In the region of the belly 
they may be extremely dangerous, especially if the skin and mus- 
cles are so torn that the intestines protrude, or the cavity of the 
abdomen be opened. Remove any foreign matters from the wound 



VETERINARY SURGEON COMES. 101 

by the fingers, washing with cold or tepid water, and treat as an 
incised wound, by either bandage, pins, or stitches. Tears of the 
abdominal muscles should be treated by stitches, if possible ; and 
if the bowels protrude, the veterinary surgeon should be sent for 
without delay. Until he arrives the intestines should be cleaned 
in warm water, if soiled, placed on a cloth, gently returned, and 
retained by a wide bandage fastened round the body. Sometimes 
the muscles of the belly are lacerated without the skin being torn, 
and the intestines make a large swelling beneath the skin. In this 
case also the wide bandage is most useful. Should there be bleed- 
ing, apply cold water or plug the wound. If the chest is opened, 
the body bandage is also to be resorted to, to prevent admission of 
air. In parts where the skin is fine and thin, as the eyelids and 
nostrils, the edges of the wound should be brought into apposition 
as soon as possible, so as to obtain adhesion quickly. Fine pins or 
stitches, or glue or pitch plasters, will effect this. 

Contused wounds are the most frequent of any among the larger 
animals, and they are serious from the fact that the parts wounded 
are also much bruised and torn, so that their vitality is more or 
less impaired, and sloughing is apt to ensue, abscesses to form, &c. 
They are produced by falls, kicks, blows, collisions, bites, &c. Very 
serious contused wounds are those which occur to joints, as the 
knees and hocks, and especially when the joints are opened. 

For contused wounds generally warm water fomentations are 
best : at any rate, until all grit and foreign matter is removed. 
Poultices are good supplementary agents, particularly for joints. 
When the contusions to limbs or joints are severe, the animal should 
be moved as little as possible. Some contusions and wounds are 
so serious when inflicted, that there is extreme depression and 
symptoms of collapse, manifested by cold sweats, trembling, un- 
steady gait, and coldness of limbs and surface of body. A quart 
of oatmeal gruel with two or three ounces of brandy, to a horse or 
ox, and a tablespoonful or so of brandy-and-water to a dog, will be 
beneficial under these circumstances. Rubbing the body and keep- 
ing it warm will assist in restoring strength. 

Punctured wounds are produced by sharp-pointed objects, and 
most important parts and organs may be penetrated without scarcely 
any external indication of the mischief done. If there is bleeding, 
plug the wound or apply pressure outside until the veterinary sur- 
geon comes. Very often the sole of the horse's foot is wounded by 
sharp flints, nails, &c. The gravity of the wound will depend upon 
its depth and situation. A nail penetrating the sole deeply towards 
the point of the frog is a serious accident. Remove the nail care- 
fully by pulling it straight and steadily out, have the shoe taken 
off, all the horn removed from around the wound, keep the foot in 



102 WHAT TO DO BEFORE THE 

a bucket of hot water for an hour or two, then immerse it in a 
large warm bran poultice. If the foot can be poulticed with a 
high-heeled shoe fastened on it, so much the better. 

Punctured wounds of the feet caused by the farrier driving the 
nails too near or into the quick in shoeing, are not uncommon. 
Tapping around the foot with a hammer, or pinching it with pin- 
cers, will reveal the part where the injury has been inflicted. The 
shoe must be taken off, the horn removed all round the puncture, 
and the wound well opened out, to allow any matter that has formed 
to escape. Then immerse the foot in hot water, and afterwards 
poultice. 

Bleeding from the sole or frog, the result of wound, is easily 
checked by pressure with tow, lint, or a handkerchief, maintained 
against the wounded part by means of two pieces of hoop iron or 
tough wood laid across each other between the shoe and the foot. 

Fractures. — It is a somewhat popular notion that broken bones 
in animals, and especially those of the limbs, do not mend readily; 
and it consequently happens that horses and other creatures are im- 
mediately destroyed, when, in many cases, with proper care and 
treatment, they might recover and be as valuable as ever. When 
the bones of the head and jaws are fractured, unless there are grave 
complications indeed, there is little danger, and a skillful veterinary 
surgeon can in the great majority of cases make a complete cure, 
provided he is present in good time. Until he arrives, little can be 
done beyond keeping the animal quiet. If the lower jaw is broken, 
it may be supported against the upper one and bones of the face by 
a bandage, and stiff pieces of leather or pasteboard placed length- 
ways. Broken ribs are supported by a wide bandage round the 
chest. Sometimes the tail is broken in horses and cattle, and in 
this accident a leather or pasteboard splint, or a starch bandage 
(made by soaking a bandage in ordinary domestic starch, and 
wrapping it round the part while still moist), will suffice as a tem- 
porary measure. It not unfrequently happens with the horse, that 
in heavy falls the pelvis is fractured, so that when the animal rises 
it drags or strikes the toe or toes of the hind feet to such an extent 
that it cannot travel any distance ; the fetlocks double over, the 
limbs give way, and repeated falls are the consequence. To get the 
horse home to his stable, it is necessary to prevent this striking and 
doubling of the limb or limbs, by passing a rope or band round the 
pastern and pulling the foot forward in progression. If there is 
intense lameness and inability to walk, the animal should either be 
allowed to remain at the nearest stable, or conveyed home in a bul- 
lock wagon. 

Fractures of the limbs are serious, according to the nature of the 
fracture and the bone fractured. Fractures are simple, compound, 



VETERINARY SURGEON COMES. 103 

and comminuted. A simple fracture is merely the bone broken into 
two portions ; it is compound when the broken bones lacerate the 
soft parts around them ; and comminuted when the bone is reduced 
to a number of pieces. A simple fracture is the least serious, and 
provided the broken ends can be maintained in apposition, and no 
important parts — as joints — are involved, recovery takes place more 
readily in animals, perhaps, than in man. A compound fracture is 
sometimes hopeless, when the soft parts torn are of importance ; 
and a comminuted fracture is generally a hopeless one. 

As a rule, no animal should be destroyed for fracture — especially 
if it be a valuable animal — until it has been seen by a veterinary 
surgeon ; as I have known horses, dogs, cows, goats, and sheep, 
killed from a leg being broken when a cure could have been 
effected. 

Until the veterinary surgeon comes the animal should be kept as 
quiet as possible, and the broken bone fixed by means of a bandage 
round it, above which wooden, pasteboard, stiff leather, or gutta- 
percha splints should be fastened. Gutta-percha makes an excel- 
lent splint, as when steeped in warm water it is softened, and can 
then be moulded to the shape of the part. To prevent movement, 
the greater portion of the limb should be enveloped in bandages. 
If the fracture is compound, the bone should be " set/' i. e., 
straightened, so that the broken parts meet/ then the wound 
should be treated with cold water, if there is bleeding, after which 
a linen bandage or handkerchief must be tied round it, then 
splints. With small animals — as the dog, sheep, goat, pig, and 
cat — a starch bandage, or Burgundy pitch melted and spread on 
a bandage, answers very well. Horses sometimes receive a kick 
from another horse on the inside of the thigh-bone, above the hock, 
where the bone is only covered by the skin, and displacement or 
fracture does not take place at the time — the bone being only 
cracked. In some cases there is lameness ; in other cases it is so 
slight that the horse is kept at work, and many days may elapse 
before disunion occurs. I have known a horse perform hard work for 
seventeen days after receiving the kick, before the leg became com- 
pletely broken. When, therefore, a horse receives an injury of 
this kind, every precaution should be taken, and he ought not to 
be allowed to lie down for three weeks or a month. If the bone 
has been really cracked, in the course of a few days a hard swelling 
will appear at the seat of contusion — the new matter thrown out to 
repair the fracture. 

In all fractures of limb-bones there is great and sudden lameness, 
and if manipulation be made, crepitation, or grating of the broken 
pieces of bone on each other, will generally be felt. Cold water 
continually applied to a fractured limb greatly alleviates pain. 



104 WHAT TO DO BEFORE THE 

Dislocations. — Dislocations in animals are not infrequent, and 
some of them are extremely serious, while others are not so. 
When they occur in the joints of the limbs, there is great 
lameness and more or less deformity. They may occur in various 
situations; indeed, there are no joints which may not be dis- 
located, though some are much more exposed to this accident than 
others. 

The prompt reduction of a dislocation is above all things neces- 
sary, and it should be effected, if possible, without delay. Exten- 
sion — pulling the dislocated bones apart, with perhaps side pressure 
at the same time — is to be made, and then a bandage should be 
wrapped round the joint, if it belong to a limb. Cold water should 
then be applied, and the animal kept at rest. 

Sometimes dislocation of the stifle occurs in young or weakly 
horses — the stifle-bone (patella) slipping off to the outside of the 
joint, producing a peculiar kind of lameness. The hind leg is 
more or less thrust backwards, and the horse cannot bring it for- 
ward — consequently he drags it stiffly behind him. No dislocation 
is so easily reduced. r lhe leg is to be pulled well forward by 
means of a rope round the pastern, and the stifle-bone, which pro- 
jects outwards, is then smartly pushed forward : it makes a clicking 
noise when it gets in its natural place. 

Dislocation of the lower jaw sometimes occurs in the dog, 
through opening the mouth too wide when giving the animal 
medicine. The creature cannot close its mouth, and the lower jaw 
is rather protruded. To reduce this dislocation, place a round 
piece of wood — a thick pencil or roller, according to the size of the 
dog — across the mouth, and well back. Then endeavor to close the 
mouth in front, pushing back the lower jaw at the same time, 
when it will enter the joint with a jerk. It is best to do this, and, 
indeed, all operations on the dog's mouth, with gloves on the hands. 
The wood in some instances may be dispensed with, the lower jaw 
being pressed firmly downward and backward. 

Sprains. — Sprains are not, as a rule, so serious as the majority 
of fractures, and there is not the same urgency with regard to them, 
though when very severe they may be mistaken for fractures. 
More especially is this the case with sprain of the muscles and 
ligaments of the horse's back, which if very intense might be con- 
founded with broken back. But in the latter paralysis is more or 
less complete, and the hind legs are colder than the fore ones, 
while sensation is generally lost. Pricking the legs with a pin 
will prove the absence of sensation. Broken back is hopeless, 
while sprained back may quite recover. If the accident has 
occurred away from home, and the horse cannot travel, he ought to 
be carried in a bullock or low flat cart. Slings will probably be 



VETERINARY SURGEON COMES. 105 

necessary when he reaches the stable, and these, with the necessary 
attention, must be furnished by the veterinary surgeon. 

Sprains of tendons or ligaments in the limbs vary in intensity 
and gravity, and cause more or less lameness. Pain on manipula- 
tion, and increased temperature, with swelling, and a characteristic 
mode of progression, mark the seat of injury for those accustomed 
to horses. Until the veterinary surgeon arrives, hot fomentations 
or cold water applications may be resorted to. If tendons or liga- 
ments at the back part of a limb are injured — indeed, in every 
instance in which a horse cannot put his heel to the ground — a 
high-heeled or patten shoe should be put on the foot. This is 
generally half the cure, as it relieves the part which is sprained. 

A word of caution is necessary, however, with regard to sprains. 
In all cases of lameness, unless there is exceedingly conclusive 
evidence to the contrary, the foot should be suspected as the seat of 
lameness, and especially the shoeing as a cause. 

Burns and Scalds. — All the domestic animals are liable to 
be burned or scalded : the larger from their dwellings taking fire, 
or their being employed in certain works; and the smaller, to 
scalding by hot water accidentally spilt upon them in the kitchen. 
The seriousness of these accidents usually depends upon the extent 
of surface and depth involved, and the parts implicated. As a rule, 
severe burns or scalds either lead to a fatal result or damage the 
animal so much as to render the expense and trouble of treatment 
inadvisable. The severity of these accidents cannot, however, be 
ascertained with certainty until the arrival of the veterinary sur- 
geon. In the meantime, the injured parts should be excluded from 
the air as quickly as possible, some soothing application being pre- 
viously applied. If at hand, in the case of burns or scalds which 
are not very severe, white lead paint is a good application. Baking 
soda (bicarbonate of soda) is generally kept in every house, and is 
a very good remedy ; it may be made up into a paste with water, 
and laid over the injured part ; or it may be merely sprinkled as a dry 
powder over it. The well-known " Carron oil " (equal parts or' 
lime water and linseed oil), solution of alum (two ounces to the 
pint of water), Goulard water, and other applications, have all been 
commended. 

After dressing with either of them, the parts should be covered 
thickly with cotton-wool or flour. When the pain is very severe, 
bathing with oil of turpentine allays it, and an after application of 
resin ointment is beneficial. 

Bites and Stings. — Ordinary bites may be treated as lacerated 
or contused wounds, the part being well cleansed. Poisonous bites, 
more particularly, require thorough cleansing, and the most prompt 
treatment, to avert serious or fatal consequences. Active suction 



106 WHAT TO DO BEFORE THE 

by the mouth, causing a strong jet of water to play upon them, 
and squeezing them well, should at once be resorted to. The cir- 
culation in the part should be retarded wherever possible, by 
making pressure on the larger vessels passing from it by means of 
the fingers or a handkerchief and pad, as recommended for stop- 
ping bleeding. It may be absolutely necessary to cauterize the 
wounds, and to effect this there is seldom anything more convenient 
than a red-hot iron, in the form of a skewer, nail, or any other iron 
object in shape like the animal's teeth or fangs. If any caustic — 
as nitrate of silver, sulphate of copper, nitric acid — is at hand, 
then it may be employed instead ; but the destruction of the poison 
must be thorough. Snake-bite should be treated in a similar way, 
but if symptoms of depression or collapse appear, then stimulants 
must be quickly administered. Brandy will do; but spirits of 
ammonia (liquor ammonia) is best. The doses may be small, but 
given frequently. The injection of the liquor ammonia into the 
veins often affords the only chance of saving life. 

Animals are sometimes most seriously stung by wasps, bees, or 
hornets, and death not infrequently ensues. Lime-water sponged 
over the surface, a strong lather of carbolic acid soap in which a 
little additional carbolic acid has been dissolved, a solution of car- 
bolic acid (one ounce to the quart of water), or a solution of liquor 
ammonia (two ounces to the quart of water), are good applications. 
To diminish the general irritation give laudanum (tincture of 
opium), half a teaspoonful to a dog, a tablespoonful to a calf, and 
one or two ounces to a horse or cow. 

Rabid Dogs. — A few words as to rabid or mad dogs, and the 
measures to be adopted with regard to them. Every person who 
keeps a dog, and even those who do not, should know something 
of rabies, and how its evil consequences may be averted. In the 
first place, a mad dog is not afraid of water, but will drink it and 
swim in it, and even lap its own urine. Therefore the water test 
is a fallacious one. Secondly, a mad dog does not always froth at 
the mouth, though sometimes saliva hangs from it. Thirdly, a 
dog in this condition is not always furious. Fourthly, the appetite 
is not always lost, but it is generally so depraved that the creature 
swallows all kinds of substances. The earliest symptoms are — 
changed manner ; moroseness ; desire to retire into out-of-the-way 
places ; restlessness ; tendency to lick cold substances — as iron or 
stone — and to gnaw and swallow wood, carpets, rugs, &c. ; desire 
to bite and fight with other dogs ; seeking to escape from home, 
and returning after a time dirty, fatigued, and strange in manner; 
altered bark and howl ; squinting of the eyes ; readiness to snap, 
even at those to whom it was most attached ; insensibility to pain, 
as while being beaten ; worrying other creatures. In some cases 



VETERINARY SURGEON COMES. 107 

the lower jaw drops, the mouth gapes, aDd the dog looks as if 
something were in its throat. These are the most marked symp- 
toms, and whenever they are exhibited by a dog it should be at 
once safely secured until the arrival of the veterinary surgeon. 
We have just enumerated the measures to be promptly had re- 
course to when a person or animal has been bitten by a dog — no 
matter what its condition may be. 

It is a great mistake to at once destroy a dog which has bitten 
any one, as its state of health cannot then be ascertained. The 
most judicious course is to have the animal securely tied up where 
it cannot do injury, and keep it under the observation of the 
veterinary surgeon for a few days ; this will decide whether rabies 
is present or absent. A stupid notion is entertained by some 
people, that if a healthy dog inflict a bite, the person or animal 
wounded will incur great peril should it afterwards become rabid. 
This notion has no foundation whatever in fact, and should be got 
rid of, as it frequently causes much anxiety and distress. 

Choking. — Choking often occurs with animals, and in some 
cases death rapidly ensues if relief is not afforded. In the larger 
animals it is generally caused by roots, apples, dry fodder — as chaff, 
bran, chopped hay, &c, or foreign substances. In the smaller 
animals — dog and cat — it is usually a bone. Sometimes it is due 
to grooms giving a ball, either through this being too large, too 
hard, or improperly placed at the back of the mouth. 

The symptoms differ somewhat, according to the situation and 
nature of the obstruction. When the latter is solid, and lodged at 
the upper part of the throat or the neck, the animal exhibits much 
distress: eyes prominent and staring; difficult breathing; saliva 
flowing from the mouth; strenuous attempts to swallow; bending 
the nose in towards the chest, then spasmodically curving the neck 
and extending the head; champing the jaws together; coughing 
violently, shrieking, and even expelling dung and urine ; stamping 
and pawing with the feet; when attempts are made to drink water, 
the fluid returns by the nostrils ; and there is profuse cold sweating. 
In cattle there is great and rapid distension of the stomach, which 
may very soon produce asphyxia ; and when the substance gets 
over the top of the windpipe in horses or cattle, death may result 
in a few minutes. 

When the obstruction is lodged in the neck portion of the gullet, 
there is less difficulty in discovering it than when it is at the back 
of the mouth or in the chest portion ; as, if at all large, it can be 
seen as well as felt in the furrow and along the windpipe. 

When it is lodged in the part of the gullet which passes through 
the chest, then the symptoms are not generally so urgent. But 
the animal cannot swallow, and food and water are expelled through 



108 WHAT TO DO BEFORE TIIE 

the mouth and nostrils in cattle, though only by the nostrils in the 
horse. 

With dry, chopped, or ground food, the symptoms are similar, 
except that if it is lodged in the neck portion of the gullet, instead 
of a hard defined mass being felt the swelling will be soft and 
somewhat doughy. 

Small animals cough, attempt persistently to vomit, and stringy 
saliva flows from the mouth. 

In urgent cases of choking there may be danger in waiting for 
the veterinary surgeon, and it may be necessary to attempt to give 
relief. A rapid examination should be made at the side of the 
neck along the throat, in order to discover if the obstruction is 
situated there. If it is not, then an examination must be made 
of the back part of the mouth. This requires tact and care, as 
well as skill, unfortunately, with the larger animals, and amateurs 
do not always possess this. The head should be raised and the 
nose extended, the mouth kept widely open by some means, the 
tongue carefully and steadily pulled out by the left hand, while 
the right hand is passed back into the throat. Should it be able 
to reach and seize the obstructive body by one or more fingers, 
this ought to be drawn forward out of the mouth. Should its 
seizure be difficult, an assistant must make firm upward pressure 
on each side of the neck, towards the back of the lower jaw. If 
this does not succeed, and when the abdomen swells so much as to 
threaten suffocation, it has been recommended to fasten a gag in 
the mouth — a smooth round piece of wood, about two inches in 
diameter, tied by means of a cord at each end across the mouth 
around the top of the head, behind the ears or horns. In many 
cases nothing more is required to be done, the obstacle passing 
down the throat. When the animal begins to scream for breath, 
or stagger about, or has fallen from suffocation, then not a moment 
is to be lost in opening the windpipe. This, though requiring skill 
to do it properly, nevertheless in such a death-or-life case must be 
attempted by the amateur. An ordinary pen or pocket-knife must 
be pushed into the front of the neck, about six or eight inches 
below the lower jaw, and an incision three inches long made into 
the windpipe from above to below. Into this incision two fingers 
should be pushed and then separated, so as to open a wide aperture 
into which the air can pass. This aperture must be kept open 
until the arrival of the veterinary surgeon, who can then insert a 
proper tube, and set about the removal of the obstacle. When the 
obstacle is lower, and the symptoms not extremely urgent, occa* 
sional small quantities of water, gruel, or linseed oil should be ad- 
ministered, and if it can be felt in the region of the neck it may 
be pushed gently up and down until it is well moistened, when it 



VETERINARY SURGEON COMES. 109 

will probably pass on into the stomach. Should this not succeed, 
then gentle force from above must be resorted to if there is distress, 
and the veterinary surgeon has not yet appeared. There is a 
special instrument — the probang — which should be kept in every 
cattle establishment; but if this is not at hand, then a long piece 
of rather thick new rope — one end being teased out a little and 
tied back to make it wider and softer — must serve as a makeshift 
probang. The rope at this extremity, and for some distance, must 
be well oiled or greased, and the animal's nose and head being 
raised in a line with the neck, the tongue is pulled out, the wide 
end of the rope p?issed steadily and gently along to the back of the 
mouth, into and down the gullet, where it may be seen at the left 
side of the neck. When the obstruction is reached, firm and con- 
tinuous pressure has to be exerted upon it, a few seconds at a time, 
until it begins to move ; then it is pushed into the stomach. When 
this is accomplished, the probang is carefully withdrawn, and a 
quantity of gruel, and perhaps a stimulant as well, given. When 
the obstacle is finely divided food, the probang may do harm by 
pressing it into a firm mass. It is then better to administer oil, 
gruel, or water, and trust to external manipulation. 

In cattle, when the abdomen is so extremely distended as to 
threaten suffocation, a knife should be plunged into the right side 
near the spine, and in front of the haunch-bone. With small 
animals care is necessary in handling them, in order to avoid being 
injured. In a form of madness in the dog — " dumb madness" — 
the mouth gapes as if there were a bone lodged at the back part 
of the throat; and people have lost their life from hydrophobia, 
through putting their fingers into the mouth in search of the sup- 
posed bone, and getting wounded. Gloves should therefore always 
be worn in these cases. The bone or foreign substance may be 
seized with the finger, forceps, or pliers, the jaws being held apart 
by an assistant. 

The cat should be wrapped in a towel before any attempt is 
made to examine its throat. 

In the case of the horse or cow, sloppy food should be given for 
some days after choking, especially if much force and manipulation 
have been required to give relief. 

Bleeding from the Nose, Mouth, Stomach, and Lungs. — 
Bleeding from the nose and lungs, though not very frequent in 
animals, yet when it does occur generally causes considerable alarm, 
and in some cases with good reason, particularly when blood comes 
from the lungs or stomach. 

Bleeding from the nose is the result of injury to the bones of 
the face — as from a blow — or to the lining membrane of the nose; 
as well as to severe coughing, sneezing, over-exertion — particularly 



HO WHAT TO DO BEFORE THE 

in harness while wearing a tight collar, and the animal is out of 
condition. It may also be due to disease — as in glanders, when 
we have ulceration ; or to leeches getting up the nose while the 
animal is drinking from a pond or stream. The blood comes away 
by drops, sometimes in a very thin stream, and usually from only 
one nostril; there is no foaming or cough, though the animal may 
occasionally sneeze. It is rare that any bad effects follow bleeding 
from the nose when uncomplicated with disease. If it is due to 
leeches, then these must be reached and picked off. 

Sponging the face and nose with cold water, and throwing it up 
the nostril, will usually check bleeding. If it persists, however, 
the horse's head should be tied up high to the hay rack, a beam, 
or the branch of a tree ; and if it continues very severe the nostril 
should be plugged with a sponge, handkerchief, or bundle of tow. 
As the horse breathes only through the nostrils — not by the mouth 
as well, like the ox, dog, pig, or sheep — both nostrils must not be 
plugged at the same time. An examination should be made by a 
veterinary surgeon, to ascertain the amount of injury or disease. 

Bleeding from the mouth is commonly due to injury or leeches, 
and the blood is bright red in color. Allowing the animal to rinse 
its mouth in cold water, or washing it out with a solution of alum 
in water, will check or stop the hemorrhage. 

Bleeding from the stomach is symptomatic of serious disorder — 
as of disease or poisoning — and demands the attention of the veter- 
inary surgeon. The blood will be discharged from both nostrils in 
the horse, but chiefly from the mouth in other animals. It is black 
in color, has a sourish smell, and is more or less in clots. Attempts 
at vomiting are usually observed in stomach hemorrhage. The 
cause should be discovered, if possible, and if poisoning is sus- 
pected or ascertained, the poison will be of a corrosive nature, and 
have caused ulceration of the interior of the stomach. In such 
circumstances, linseed or olive oil, starch, or flour gruel, or a quan- 
tity of beaten-up eggs, should be administered. If these do not 
combine with the poison, and so render it inert, they will, at any 
rate, act as a protection against the further action of the substance, 
and more or less soothe the ulcerated surface. If there is pain, 
opium — either in the form of powder or watery solution — should 
be given mixed with the gruel, oil, or eggs. The acetate of lead 
in solution is also useful. 

Bleeding from the lungs is distinguished from that from the nos- 
trils, mouth, or stomach, by the animal coughing very much, and 
the blood — which passes from the nostrils in the horse, mouth and 
nostrils in other animals — being bright red and foamy. There is 
usually distress in breathing. It is ordinarily brought on by severe 
exertion or coughing, though it may also be a result of disease — r.s 



VETERINARY SURGEON COMES. Ill 

acute congestion of the lungs or disease of the heart. The horse 
must be kept perfectly quiet, and cold water, acidulated with vin- 
egar or sulphuric acid, given in plenty to drink. The stable or 
loose box should be well ventilated and cool, and the body warmly 
clothed. If the limbs are cold, then rub them well, and bandage 
them. If the bleeding is due to congestion of the lungs — as it is 
after severe exertion, and especially when the animal is not in con- 
dition — then a strong dose of bran dy-and- water should be given. 
A dose of opium should also be administered, if it is at hand. 

Palpitation of the Heart. — The horse, dog, and cow are 
liable to attacks of palpitation of the heart, but especially the first- 
mentioned animal. If there is no actual disease of the heart, pal- 
pitation — though alarming — is not of much moment, though at the 
time it may inconvenience or distress the animal. The excessive 
convulsive beating or thumping of the heart may be due, when 
disease is not present, to fear, or nervousness, or over-exertion when 
out of condition or weakly. The beating or palpitation is so loud 
that it can be distinctly heard as a series of dull, thumping, inter- 
mittent sounds, commencing abruptly, and continuing for a variable 
period, the body jerking at the same time as the thump. When 
this palpitation begins during severe exertion, as in galloping, the 
animal should be stopped, and kept quiet, with the head to the 
wind, until the sounds have diminished and the jerking of the body 
has ceased Or it may be walked quietly home, receiving some ale 
and gruel, if convenient, and the journey happens to be a long one. 
As debility is generally present, and perhaps the heart may be dis- 
eased, the veterinary surgeon should be consulted. 

Acute Congestion of the Lungs. — Acute congestion of the 
lungs is most frequent in horses, and if not promptly removed it 
may quickly cause death, or lead to inflammation of the lungs — 
pneumonia. Various causes will produce this congestion, but per- 
haps the commonest is severe exertion when out of condition, or 
bringing in a heated and exhausted horse from a cold atmosphere 
to a hot and badly-ventilated stable. 

When it occurs during exertion, the animal looks distressed; 
the nostrils are widely dilated, the breathing is greatly hurried and 
labored, the nose thrust out, the eyes staring and red, the gait un- 
steady, the ears and limbs cold, the body bedewed with a clammy 
perspiration, and the heart's beats — felt behind the elbow — are 
irregular and disordered. If movement is continued the animal 
will soon fall. 

The horse should be pulled up before becoming so distressed — 
the wheezing, hurried, and labored breathing, slackening speed, 
heaviness in hand, and staggering gait, are warnings — girths slack- 
ened, or saddle altogether removed, or if in harness, the collar. 



112 WHAT TO DO BEFORE THE 

and everything else which may impede respiration or fidget the 
horse. 

The head should be turned to the wind, the ears and legs well 
rubbed, as well as the surface of the body, if wisps or cloths can 
be procured, and a good dose of alcohol (whisky or brandy), one 
or two wine-glassfuls, and water administered; or if this cannot be 
procured, then warm gruel with a quantity of ginger or pepper in 
it must be given. Acute congestion of the lungs, when occurring 
in the stable, presents the same symptoms : great distress of coun- 
tenance, widely-dilated nostrils and very hurried breathing, cold 
legs and ears, &c. Remove from the hot stable to a cool place, or 
throw open the doors and windows ; give a stimulant as above, and 
repeat it in half an hour or so, if the veterinary surgeon has not 
arrived. Rub the legs, ears, and body well, then clothe and band- 
age to keep up the surface temperature. If relief is not soon af- 
forded, and skilled aid has not yet been available, horse rugs soaked 
in hot water and wrung out should be wrapped round the body, 
and these again covered with dry rugs. If the amateur can prac- 
tise phlebotomy with safety, the horse should be bled from the 
jugular vein to the extent of six or eight quarts. Spirits of am- 
monia, in doses of half an ounce in a quart of tepid water, and 
frequently repeated, is an excellent medicine. Mustard poultices 
should be applied to the sides and front of the chest, if the hot- 
water rugs have not been employed. 

Pleurisy. — Pleurisy generally commences suddenly, like con- 
gestion of the lungs, and the symptoms are not very unlike those 
observed in that condition. Only the ribs are, as it were, fixed, 
the sides of the chest do not move, and the breathing is mainly 
carried on by the muscles of the belly — inspiration being short and 
catching, while the air is expelled slowly and carefully. Turning 
the horse round suddenly — he is unwilling to be moved — will cause 
him to grunt ; there is usually a short, painful cough, and if press- 
ure be applied by the ends of the fingers between the ribs, over the 
inflamed part, the animal winces, grunts, and tries to evade it. 
There is often much uneasiness, though it is rare that he seeks to 
lie down. Until the arrival of the veterinary surgeon the treat- 
ment should be the same as for congestion of the lungs, hot-water 
rugs or mustard poultices to the sides of the chest being all-im- 
portant. 

Inflammation of the Feet. — Inflammation of the feet, or 
laminitis, is a very serious condition in the horse, and demands 
careful and active treatment at its very commencement or congest- 
ive stage, if grave consequences are to be averted. It is most fre- 
quently induced by long or rapid journeys on hard roads during 
hot weather, or in animals not in training; improper shoeing, and 



VETERINARY SURGEON COMES. 113 

injuries; though it not unfrequently appears as a sequel of such 
diseases as influenza, inflammation of the lungs or bowels, feeding 
on certain kinds of food, standing too long in the stable, and over- 
feeding. It is a most painful disease, and when acute the symp- 
toms are most marked. The fore-feet are most frequently involved, 
and in addition to signs of general fever — hurried breathing, dila- 
ted nostrils, anxious countenance, hard quick pulse, perspiring— 
there is great disinclination to move, even when force is employed 
the animal swaying his body backwards and forwards rather thai, 
lift the feet off the ground. These are placed well out in front, so 
as to throw the weight on the heels, while the hind legs are brought 
more under the body. "When compelled to move, the hind limbs 
have to sustain nearly all the weight ; the horse appears greatly dis- 
tressed, and groans, and the hoofs are very hot. If both fore-feet 
are involved, it is all but impossible to make the horse stand on 
one of them ; but if only one is affected, then this is often rested 
and placed in front. When the hoofs of the inflamed feet are 
tapped with a hammer, the greatest distress is exhibited. Should 
the hind feet be affected — which is not so common — they are placed 
well beneath the body, but the front ones are brought back close to 
them, so as to sustain a larger share of the weight. 

If there is only congestion — that is, the disease has only com- 
menced — compelling the animal to take long-continued but gentle 
walking exercise on soft ground, may soon effect a recovery, and 
more especially if the shoes are taken off, during the intervals of 
rest cold water being applied to the hoofs, or the feet immersed in 
cold poultices. A strong dose of physic should also be given soon, 
if the animal is in gross condition. If it is apprehended that the 
congestive stage has passed and the inflammatory one is present, 
then exercise should not be resorted to, but the margin of the hoof 
should be rasped down when the shoes are removed, so as to make 
it level with the sole, and poultices applied. It will be all the 
better if the horse can be induced to lie down on a good bed of 
sawdust or tan. Considering the serious character of this disease, 
no time should be lost in sending for the veterinary surgeon. 

Sunstroke. — During very hot weather, animals exposed to the 
sun and compelled to undergo severe exertion are liable to sun- 
stroke or heat apoplexy. The attack may be quite sudden — the 
first intimation of it being the horse, or whatever animal it chances 
to be, falling to the ground as if shot. At other times, if it be a 
horse in harness, signs of giddiness and stupor are manifested ; the 
animal shows an indisposition to go on so freely as usual, hangs 
heavy in hand, does not care for the whip, and staggers If not 
relieved he stops, props out his limbs, drops his head, appears to 
be only half conscious, the breathing is hurried, panting, and noisy, 
8 



114 WHAT TO DO BEFORE THE 

the eyes staring and bloodshot, and the body perhaps covered with 
perspiration. Then the creature falls quite unconscious, struggles 
perhaps, or lies perfectly still; the breathing is stertorous, and 
death may ensue more or less rapidly in the midst of profound 
coma. 

Debility, bad and tight-fitting harness, keeping in hot, insuffici- 
ently-ventilated stables, insufficient exercise, unsuitable food, and 
plethora, are all predisposing causes, and should be guarded against 
during hot, sultry weather, if animals must be travelled, or cannot 
be kept cool. 

When attacked, remove into a cool, shady place, if possible; 
whether possible or not, cold water should be applied freely to the 
head and neck. To the head and spine it should more particularly 
be applied in a full stream, and an ice-bag will be found most bene- 
ficial if placed against the head. The limbs should be well hand- 
rubbed, and it may be necessary to apply turpentine or ammonia 
liniment to them by friction, and mustard to the head and sides of 
the neck when torpor is extreme. 

Recovery in bad cases is slow, and should the animal rally in a 
short time it must not be immediately worked or travelled. 

Fits. — Animals often fall down in what are called " fits/' and 
cause alarm Horses, when in harness, and even in the saddle, are 
liable to attacks of epilepsy, during which they may be seized with 
partial convulsions without falling, or they may fall and be violently 
convulsed while lying on the ground. In such circumstances but 
little can be done, except allowing the animal to have plenty of 
air, preventing it injuring itself while struggling, dashing cold 
water against the head and spine, and keeping it quiet for some 
time after recovery. 

Small animals are very liable to fits, especially dogs. During 
the attack they whine or yell, struggle convulsively, foam at the 
mouth, roll their eyes about, and gnash their teeth, &c. 

The cause or causes of fits are often very obscure, and the 
veterinary surgeon must be left to ascertain them and suggest 
measures for their prevention. 

Fainting. — Fainting, or syncope, is comparatively rare among 
animals. During the attack they lie perfectly still, the pulse is not 
much altered, the breathing is tranquil, and there are scarcely any 
symptoms of a departure from ordinary health, except the state of 
unconsciousness, from which the creature cannot be aroused. 
Plenty of fresh air, sponging of the face, nostrils, and mouth with 
cold water, pulling the tongue well forward, and, if the animal 
wears harness, removing all those portions which may impede the 
respiration or circulation, are the chief indications. The cause of 
fainting should be ascertained by the veterinary surgeon. 



VETERINARY SURGEON COMES. 115 

Stomach Staggers. — The stomach derangement which gives 
rise to staggering and other symptoms — due to disturbance in the 
circulation or nervous system — usually arises from inordinate eat- 
ing causing paralysis of the stomach and functions of digestion — 
as when horses get to the corn-bin during the night ; from con- 
suming various articles of food to which they have not been 
accustomed — as unripe or indigestible vegetation ; or from the con- 
sumption of food containing some noxious principle. 

There is first sluggishness and sleepiness — drowsiness being often 
manifested during eating, the eyelids being more or less closed, and 
the eyes dull. The belly is more or less distended, the head hangs 
heavy, or is listlessly laid on the ground if the animal is lying, or 
on the manger if standing. It ceases to masticate while food is 
yet in the mouth, and when compelled to move, the gait is stagger- 
ing, and the animal stupidly bores forward against any obstacle, 
instead of trying to avoid it. In the ox, the rumen may be so 
extremely distended as to threaten suffocation. If not relieved, 
violent symptoms supervene. The movements become wild and 
disordered, and almost incessant during the paroxysms, and the 
animal dashes itself about, heedless of the pain and injury it may 
inflict upon itself, and rendering approach to it very dangerous 
during the delirium. 

A very strong purgative should be at once administered, com- 
bined with a stimulant — as alcohol. If copious enemas can be given 
before the arrival of the medical attendant, so much the better. 
Abundant affusion of cold water to the head, or the application of 
the ice-bag, must also be resorted to. In the ox, when the rumen is 
greatly distended, it should be punctured to allow the gas to escape. 

Colic. — There are two kinds of colic — spasmodic, and flatulent 
or tympanitic. In the first there is spasm of the small intestine, 
without any external manifestation, except symptoms of pain; 
whereas in the second, in addition to the pain, the belly is greatly 
distended, and this distension is due to the generation of gas from 
indigestion, or to the animal (if a horse) swallowing air, as in crib- 
biting or wind-sucking. 

In spasmodic colic the attack is sudden, the horse all at once 
exhibiting uneasiness in pawing, stamping with the hind feet, or 
striking with them at the belly, looking round anxiously towards 
the flank, crouching, switching the tail, throwing himself down, 
groaning, rolling over on his back, and, if the pain is very acute, 
appearing distressed, and perspiring. In a few minutes the spasm 
passes off, the horse or ox appears easy for a longer or shorter 
period, when there is a relapse, and similar symptoms are again 
exhibited. Neither the breathing nor the pulse is disturbed, except 
during the spasm. 



116 WHAT TO DO BEFORE THE 

The dog yells and moans during the attack, moves uneasily from 
place to place, and when it passes off, lies down and curls itself up 
until another spasm comes on. 

Rubbing the belly well, applying warmth to it by means of a 
hot blanket or hot water, or a stimulating liniment, exercise at a 
slow or fast pace, the exhibition of a stimulant, as alcohol, or an 
anodyne, as laudanum, usually relieves the animal. It may be 
necessary to administer a mild castor oil or linseed oil purgative, 
when the spasm depends upon some irritation in the intestine, and 
to give enemas. 

In tympanitic or flatulent colic the symptoms are similar, and 
there is more or less distension of the belly, with, perhaps, nausea 
and labored breathing, as well as stupor when the distension is 
great. 

If the tympany is due to crib-biting or wind-sucking, rubbing 
the belly very hard, and giving exercise, will often afford relief. 
If it does not, or if the attack proceeds from indigestion, then a 
strong stimulant dose must be given, with an oil or other purga- 
tive — the treatment being something the same as in spasmodic 
colic. 

In attacks of colic — whether spasmodic or flatulent — if the 
symptoms do not disappear in the course of an hour or two, the 
veterinary surgeon should be sent for, as serious consequences may 
follow. 

Inflammation of the Bowels. — Inflammation of the bowels 
may supervene on colic, or arise immediately from some other 
cause. The symptoms are not unlike those of colic, except that 
the pain is persistent, the animal has no remissions, but it lies down 
more carefully, the face is more anxious and distressed-looking, the 
body is more or less covered with perspiration, the breathing, and 
pulse are hurried, ears and legs cold, eyes anxious or dull, and the 
belly tender on pressure. The veterinary surgeon should.be at 
once sent for, and until he arrives very hot water must be applied 
to the belly. This is best done by fastening a large horse-blanket, 
doubled, round the body, close to the skin, and pouring the hot 
water on the outside of it by means of a small vessel — as a cup. A 
pint or so of linseed or olive oil should be given, with flour gruel, 
and opium (one or two drachms of the powder), and enemas of 
warm water. 

Poisoning. — Animals are poisoned either accidentally, malici- 
ously, or through the injudicious administration of poisonous sub- 
stances by amateurs and empirics. The majority of poisons are 
vegetable or mineral, very few are of animal origin. 

The symptoms produced by many poisons closely resemble those 
manifested during the existence of some diseases, and it is there- 



Veterinary surgeon comes. 117 

fore often very difficult even for a highly skilled person to decide 
whether an animal is suffering from the effects of poison or is labor- 
ing under a particular disease. 

In order to counteract the effects of a poison, not only must it 
be known that the suffering animal has been poisoned, but the 
nature of the poison, and consequently its antidote, must also be 
known. Considering that poisons act in many different ways, and 
affect different organs or tissues in the body, and that almost every 
one of them requires a different kind of antidote, it will be seen 
that a great amount of knowledge is required, and that in a col- 
lection of brief notes like the present it would be impossible to 
describe everything relating to toxicology. 

When poisoning is suspected, the veterinary surgeon should at 
once be sent for, and the message should convey information as to 
the kind of poison suspected, and the symptoms. Until he ap- 
pears, everything ought to be done to neutralize the injurious 
effects and alleviate the symptoms. 

Some poisons produce diarrhoea and dysentery, with great pain. 
To ameliorate these symptoms, and, if possible, prevent further 
local action, it is best to give quantities of milk, flour, or starch 
gruel, thick and viscid, eggs beaten up, or thick broths or soups ; 
while to allay the pain large doses of opium powder, or watery 
infusion of opium, should be administered. These articles do well 
for many mineral, as well as some acrid and irritant vegetable 
poisons. If acids are the cause of poisoning, alkalies — as the car- 
bonate of potash or soda — should be given in large quantities of 
water, in addition to milk or flour gruel ; and when it is the caustic 
alkalies — as soda, potash, or ammonia, then weak acids, as vinegar 
and water, should be administered with the above-mentioned de- 
mulcents. 

In poisoning by strychnia, which is not at all uncommon, the 
symptoms are very marked, there being most painful spasms of all 
the muscles at intervals, which bend the body backwards and 
stiffen the lknbs, while the animal is quite conscious. An infusion 
of tobacco is the best and most convenient remedy. Warm baths, 
and the administration of chloral, or inhalation of chloroform, are 
also useful. 

Phosphorus paste is not infrequently accidentally swallowed by 
animals — as dogs and cats — being used for killing rats. There is 
vomiting, and the vomit is dark, and has a luminous appearance in 
the dark, and it, as well as the breath and fseces, has the peculiar 
odor of phosphorus. There is great constitutional derangement 
and thirst. With this poison, all oily fluids, as well as broth and 
soup, should not be administered, but, instead, large quantities of 
solution of potash, magnesia, or soda. 



118 WHAT TO DO BEFORE THE 

When there is much prostration or collapse, stimulants should 
be given and external warmth applied. 

Parturition. — The females of the domestic animals do not 
require the same arrangements and care as the period of parturi- 
tion draws near, or when that act has commenced, as does woman. 
As a rule, they bring forth their young without assistance, and if 
properly fed and sheltered need but little attention otherwise. The 
larger animals, and especially the cow, are liable to expel their 
young before the full period of pregnancy has been reached, and this 
so-called abortion is sometimes a serious misfortune, particularly 
when it occurs in a place where there are many pregnant cows ; as 
when the accident happens to one, it may extend to all, or nearly 
all When abortion takes place at a comparatively early period, 
the effects are not very damaging to the animal, but every precau- 
tion should at once be adopted to prevent its neighbors from abor- 
ting. With this object, they should all, if possible, be immediately 
moved from the shed in which the accident has occurred — no con- 
tact or approach being allowed between them and the patient, nor 
should people or utensils, or anything else, be allowed to pass be- 
tween the infected shed and the yet unaffected cows. The acci- 
dent should be treated as if it were a highly infectious disease ; 
disinfectants must be freely employed, the foetus and all the mem- 
branes and discharges must be disinfected and buried, and injec- 
tions of some mild disinfectant — as a weak solution of Condy's 
fluid, or carbolic, should be made into the vagina of the cow which 
has aborted. The same procedure should be adopted in the case 
of sheep. If many animals abort, the veterinary surgeon should 
be sent for to ascertain the cause, as well as to report upon the 
general health of those animals which are not yet involved. 

If there is any unusual delay in an animal bringing forth its 
young, there is something amiss with it; or the young creature is 
not in a proper position, or is defective or distorted in shape. 

No time should be lost in sending for the veterinary surgeon 
when this delay takes place. Nothing is more pernicious or dan- 
gerous than waiting too long, or allowing unskilled persons to inter- 
fere ) as the strength of the parent may be exhausted, and the life 
of the progeny sacrificed, by undue delay ; or irreparable damage, 
or even a fatal result, may follow injudicious meddling or rough 
interference. More particularly is this the case with the mare — 
an animal which must foal quickly, which is most difficult to aid 
when there is any obstacle, and which readily succumbs when aid 
is too long deferred, or when it is improperly attempted to be ren- 
dered. The natural presentation — in the larger animals at least — 
is with the fore limbs, the feet coming first, and the nose between 
the arms. When the water-bag has appeared and burst, and after 



VETERINARY SURGEON COMES. 119 

some time there are no signs of the young creature, then difficulty 
in birth should be apprehended, and skilled assistance should be 
sent for. Until it arrives, the parent should be kept quiet, and 
gruel, or other light sustaining food, offered from time to time, to 
keep up her strength. If the amateur has sufficient knowledge 
and confidence, an examination might be made, the hand and arm 
being smeared with oil ; but on no account should forcible attempts 
to extract the young creature be resorted to. If the head or one 
or both fore-legs be doubled buck, then the indication is to bring 
them forward into the passage ; if the hind-quarters present, and 
the hocks only are in the passage, then the buttocks should be 
pushed forward, so that the legs can be extended, and the feet 
carried outwards. Beyond these directions we cannot go, as there 
is perhaps no more difficult section of the veterinary surgeon's art 
than that pertaining to the delivery of animals in parturition; and 
we have before us hundreds of instances of valuable mares, cows, 
sows, and bitches, which were tortured and lost through amateur 
efforts to extract the young. Only too often this interference ren- 
ders what would be an easily remedied mal-presentation by the 
veterinary surgeon, one altogether beyond hope. 

And even when birth has taken place the danger is not over. 
The membranes (after birth) must come away soon after the young 
creature, and when they are retained too long serious consequences 
may ensue. Their removal also requires the intervention of the 
veterinary surgeon, though the injection of warm water, and gentle 
traction at the portion which is accessible, may enable the owner of 
the animal to effect their displacement. 

The cow is specially liable, after giving birth, to what is known 
as " dropping after calving " (parturient apoplexy) : a serious con- 
dition, which, in the great majority of cases, runs a rapidly fatal 
course. The symptoms appear within from one to four or five 
days after calving, and the earliest is the diminution in the quan- 
tity of milk ; the animal then appears to be dull, does not eat or 
ruminate, becomes uneasy, and stamps with the hind feet ; soon 
the breathing is quickened ; staggering is observed, and she falls, 
and rapidly lapses into a deep coma, after throwing her head about 
wildly. Cows which are " deep milkers " should always be watched 
for this disease, and whenever the earliest symptoms appear a good 
dose of purgative medicine should be given, combined with a stimu- 
lant — as alcohol, or spirits of ammonia — and cold water applied in 
a full stream to the head. Medicine must be given promptly, for 
in a short time the power of swallowing is lost. 

Contagious Diseases. — Contagious diseases are generally so 
serious when they appear among animals, and the ravages of some 
of them are so great, that every one who keeps such animals 



120 WHAT TO IX) BEFORE, ETC. 

should possess some knowledge of the earliest symptoms of these 
catching disorders, not necessarily that the diseases may be sub- 
mitted to medical treatment — for some of them are not allowed by 
Government to be treated, while others are incurable — but that 
steps may be taken to prevent their spreading. Whenever any 
suspicious symptoms of disease appear, therefore, the animal should 
be carefully isolated — at least from others of the same species — and 
the veterinary surgeon sent for. 



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150 



A MORAL FOR HORSEMEN. 



It was a mournful little procession which filed out of the barn 
and took its way along the lane towards the pasture. First came 
Azariah, with the old musket. Then followed Thad, leading a 
horse, tall, gaunt and aged ; and in the rear, with a shovel over 
his shoulder, plodded old Benjamin Heminway, the owner of the 
farm. 

No one said anything, but all three of the men glanced furtively 
at the house, and Thad carefully steered old Prince around some 
outcropping ledges where his shoes would have been likely to make 
a noise. When they reached the pasture they halted. 

" I s'pose we might's well pull his shoes off," suggested Azariah. 

" Yes," said Thad. " Three of 'em's nearly new and the other 
ain't much worn. I brought the hammer along." 

He handed it to his brother, who took it and began to pry off 
the old horse's shoes. 

While the group was occupied with this task a voice broke in 
upon them. A little old lady had come quietly up the lane, and 
now stood nervously twisting her apron and regarding them with 
reproachful eyes. The men dropped the hammer and the two 
shoes they had removed, and stood silent and shamefaced. 

" Father," said the old lady, laying her hand on her husband's 
arm, "you know how I've felt about this all along. The more I 
think of it the wickeder it seems. I just can't stand it ! " 

"There, now, mother, don't take it so hard. It ain't pleasant, 
I know, but what's a body goin' to do? He's past any kind o' 
work, an' it costs something to keep him. Besides, the boys are all 
the time complainin'." 

" Well," broke in Thad, " we have to cut up all his fodder an' 
take milk to him every day, and he's forever getting into the corn- 
field or the garden." 

" Thaddy, it ain't what he is now, but what he's been that I'm 
thinking about," said the boy's mother. " You don't remember, as 
I do, how he worked here on the farm year after year, an' how 

151 



152 A MORAL FOR HORSEMEN. 

willin' and gentle he always was. You don't think of the time 
when your father had the mail contract, and old Prince travelled 
his forty miles a day, week in and week out, summer an' winter; 
or the day when the limb fell from the tree on the mountain road, 
and knocked your father senseless in the bottom of the sleigh. 
How long would he have lived in that cold, or where would you or 
any of us be, if Prince hadn't brought him home?" 

Thad was idly kicking a hole in the sod with the toe of his 
heavy boot, and Azariah shifted the musket uneasily from his 
shoulder to the ground. The old lady went on : 

" Father, old Prince has done his share to help us pay for the 
farm. He wouldn't owe us anything for board if he lived fifty 
years longer; but if he's got to be killed because you think we can't 
afford to keep him, I've got something to say. Here's eighteen 
dollars. It's my butter money, an' I've been savin' it to carpet the 
parlor with, but never mind. It'll pay for Prince's keep while it 
lasts, and there'll be more when that's gone." 

A crimson flush crept into the old man's sunburned face. 
" Stop, mother, stop ! " he said. " I'm a selfish brute, an' I'm 
ashamed of myself, but I ain't so mean as that ! Old Prince has 
earned the right to fodder and good care the rest of his life, as you 
say, an' he shall have it if he lives to be a hundred ! Thad, Az'- 
riah, you go put him into the four-acre clover lot ; an' if either of 
you pester me again 'bout killin' him, I'll take one o' them new 
tug straps an' make you dance livelier'n Prince ever did when he 
was a four-year-old." — Youth's Companion. 



VALUABLE BOOKS 

ON THE 

HORSE 



PUBLISHED BY 



THE JOHN 0. WINSTON" 00., 

1006-16 Arch Stkeet, Philadelphia. 



The Trotting Horse of America : how to Train and Drive 
Him, with Keminiscences of the Trotting Turf. By Hiram Wood- 
ruff. Edited by Charles J. Foster. Including an Introductory 
Notice by George Wilkes and a Biographical Sketch by the Editor. 
Revised and Enlarged, with a copious Index. With a steel portrait 
of the author and six engravings on wood of celebrated trotters. 
12mo. Cloth, extra, $1.00. 

"The author of this work stood at the head of his profession as a trainer and 

driver of the trotting horse To horsemen in particular the book will be found 

especially attractive and of great value. It will become a standard authority on 
the subject of which it treats." — N. Y. Herald. 

"The record of his experience and suggestions constitutes, therefore, a valuable 
accession to our knowledge, and will prove to be of standard authority among the 
most skillful. The graphic style of his descriptions, the vivid pictures he draws of 
the breeding and education of his favorites, and the reminiscences he recalls of in- 
cidents on the turf, form a work of grt^at merit Those who are desirous to 

form an accurate idea of the characteristics of the trotting horse, for their benefit as 
riders or drivers, cannot find any other work in our language so replete with use- 
ful information, interesting hints, and readable anecdotes. Hiram Woodruff is 
now dead, and it will be many a y^ar before we shall look upon his equal in his line 
of business." — The Nation, New York. 

"This is a masterly treatise by the master of his profession,— the ripened product 
of forty years' experience in handling, training, riding and driving the trotting 
horse. There is no book like it, in any language, on the subject on which it treats. 
It is accepted as authority by the owners of racing trotters and fast roadsters. Its 
publication lias been hailed by gentlemen as critically appreciative as Robert 
Bonner, and by trainers and drivers as distinguished as Sam Hoagland, Dan Mace 
and Dan Pfifer. The book is unquestionably one of great value; for, in America 
and England, the development of the horse has long been considered second only 
in importance to the development of man. This work contains the results of forty 
years' uninterrupted labor in bringing the trotter up to the highest speed and the 
greatest endurance of which he is capable. Before we read it we had seen with 
curious surprise very hearty commendation of it and eulogy of its author in the 
leading Presbyterian, Baptist and Methodist journals. No wonder, for Hiram 
Woodruff's system is based on the law of love."— N. Y. Tribune. 

"Hiram Woodruff was the great trainer of his day; but, by his unsullied integ- 
rity and unequalled capacity, he rose above his profession. No man could ever say 
of him that he had his price. Indeed, it is the universal testimony of all who 
knew him— friends and foes— that his integrity was absolutely unassailable. In 
this work, which has been ably, carefully and judiciously edited by his faithful 
friend, Mr. Charles J. Foster, are recorded for the benefit of the public at large 
his life-long experiences, his sayings and doings, his authoritative views on almost 
everything pertaining to the horse. It is a book for which every man who owns a 
horse ought to subscribe. The information which it contains is worth ten times its 
cost." — Mr. Bonner's New York Ledger. 



The Horse in the Stable and the Field: his Management 
in Health and Disease. By J. H. Walsh, F.K.C.S. ("Stonehenge"). 
With an Essay on the American Trotting Horse, and Suggestions on 
the Breeding and Training of Trotters. By Ellwood Harvey, M.D. 
Illustrated with over eighty illustrations, and full-page engravings. 
12mo. Cloth, extra, bevelled boards, $1.00. 

" It sustains its claim to be the only work which has brought together in a single 
volume, and in clear, concise and comprehensive language, adequate information 
on the various subjects of which it treats." — Harper's Magazine. 

"A very comprehensive treatise on that noble animal, in which the work of 
several hands has been well employed. The basis of the book is an English work 
by J. H. Walsh ('Stonehenge'), which has been carefully edited for American 
readers by Dr. Robert McClure, and enriched by an appendix on the American 
Trotter, by Dr. Ellwood Harvey, of Chester, Pa. All these gentlemen are at home 
on the questions they write about, and have availed themselves freely of the writ- 
ings of others, so that the book condenses the wisdom of a whole library within 
itself. It is as entertaining as most novels are, and as original and independent in 
its speculations on many points as Huxley or Darwin are."— Springfield (Mass.) 
Republican. 

" It will be seen at once that this is a book worth having. Certainly no one 
who owns a good horse, and is fit to own him, will ever regret buying it." — Hart- 
ford Couranl. 

"It holds a high rank among the works on the subject in England, and the Amer- 
ican edition is enriched by the instructive notes of the editor and an Essay on the 
American Trotting Horse, by Ellwood Harvey, M.D. The various information con- 
tained in this volume, with its appropriate illustrations, makes it a valuable work 
for the library of the farmer or horse fancier." — Neiv York Daily Tribune. 

" One of the best English books about the Horse, improved and expanded, to 
adapt it to the American public, by competent native writers; so much improved 
that years must pass before it can be bettered. Portraits of our leading trotters, 
copied from life and photographs, are finely engraved on wood, and their pedigrees 
are given in a new method, which shows the lines of descent at a glance. The 
work is complete." — The Press, Philadelphia. 

"This is an English work of acknowledged authority. It has been thoroughly 
revised and adapted to the wants of the American farmer and amateur. Dr. 
McClure, the American editor, is the well-known author of 'The Diseases of the 
American Stable, Field and Farmyard.' . . . Gives sound instruction upon all 
the points that every horse-owner will occasionally need to refer to. Every man 
who owns a horse should also own this book. It will be worth many times its cost 
to him every year. The publishers have issued it in a very substantial and credit- 
able style."— American Farmer, Baltimore. 

Encyclopaedia of Rural Sports. Comprising Shooting, Hunt- 
ing, Fishing, Boating, Yachting, Bacing, Athletics, Cricket, Base Ball, 
etc., and the Various Kural Games and Amusements of Great Britain 
and America. By J. H. Walsh ("Stonehenge"), author of "The 
Horse in the Stable and the Field," etc., etc. Illustrated with 150 fine 
engravings. Thick crown 8vo. Cloth, black and gold. Size, 6J by 8 
inches. $2.00. 

" The work is not only a guide to all manly pursuits, but treats of them in such a 
complete and exhaustive manner as to meet every possible requirement."— Neiv- 
caslle Chronicle. 

" Boys and men, sportsmen, farmers, and all to whom the horse and the do? are 
dear, will find in the 'Bural Sports' a perfect treasury of information." — Ihe Hour, 
London. 

" A. C. M., Austin, Nev. — Please inform me which is the best book on training 
horses for all distances, the price of the book, where to obtain it, etc. Also, the best 
veterinary book, price, and where to obtain it. Answer : 4 Rural Sports of England,' 
by Stonehenge, will supply the first; and 'The Horse,' by Stonehenge, will answer 
for the last about as well as any."— Spirit of the Times, New York. 



3 

The Gentleman's Stable Guide: Containing a Familiar De- 
scription of the American Stable ; the most approved method of Feed- 
ing, Grooming and General Management of Horses ; together with Di- 
rections for the Care of Carriages, Harness, etc. By Robert Mc- 
Clube, M.D., V.S. Illustrated. 16mo. Cloth, extra, $1.00. 

"Such a treatise has been needed for years, and we think this volume will supply 
the want. The illustrations are very good and timely." — Pittsburgh Daily Gazette. 

" The book contains a familiar description of the American stable, the most ap- 
proved method of feeding, grooming and general management of horses ; together 
with directions for the care of carriages, harness, etc. The whole is founded on the 
careful study and experience of many years of the author's life, and forms a valuable 
manual for any one who has charge of the noblest of man's irrational servants. Its 
low price and great value should give it general circulation among horsemen." — In- 
diana Farmer. 

"Farmers and horsemen will find this an invaluable addition to their libraries. 
All is elucidated in such a way that no one need plead ignorance as to the duties of 
grooms and the requirements of the stable — the quantity and quality of food the 
horse requires, and how to prppare it, together with the effects which may be ex- 
pected." — Herald, Mansfield, Ohio. 

" This is a book on one of the most popular and least understood of everyday 
subjects. The writer is a practical horspman a veterinarian thoroughly acquainted 
with the whole philosophy of horseflesh. The book is as entertaining as useful, 
and will repay a careful reading. Horse fanciers can find much in the book really 
serviceable, and farmers might save themselves much vexation and loss by heeding 
its practicable and experienced suggestions." — Rochester Democrat. 

Diseases of the Horse and How to Treat Them. A concise 
Manual of Special Pathology, for the use of Horsemen, Farmers, Stock 
Raisers and Students in Agricultural Colleges. By Robeet Chawneb 
and J. M. Walsh. New Eevised Edition. Illustrated. 12mo. Cloth, $1.25. 

" It is an unpretending treatise, free from technicalities, and well adapted for the 
use of farmers and stock raisers. The object of Dr. Chawner was to make a popu- 
lar and reliable handbook on that department of veterinary science which treats of 
the horse and his diseases, and in this object he has succeeded and supplied a prac- 
tical want. There is no extraneous matter. Information is imparted with com- 
mendable brevity, and in language plain and simple enough to be understood by 
all. The fallacies of the old school are rejected, and the treatment prescribed is that 
of modern practitioners." — Turf, Field and Farm, New York. 

"Those who have a use for it do not have to wade through a multitude of pages 
to find out what is to be done in a given contingency." — Cincinnati Commercial. 

The Practical Horse Keeper. By George Fleming, LL.D., 
F.R.C.V.S. A Guide to those who have to do with Horses, contain- 
ing chapters on Breeding, Purchasing, Stable and Stabling, Feeding, 
General Management, Riding, Hunting, Breaking and Training, Har- 
ness and Driving, Shoeing and Diseases of the Foot, Injuries, Lame- 
ness, Diseases of the Horse, the Ass and Mule, etc. 12mo. Cloth, 
75 cents. 

The Horse. By AYilliam Youatt. Together with a Gen- 
eral History of the Horse and a Dissertation on the American Trot- 
ting Horse, and an essay on the Ass and the Mule. By J. S. Skinneb. 
With an engraving on steel and 58 illustrations on wood. Cloth, extra, 
$1.00. 

" His works are standard authorities in England and America." — Allibone's 
Dictionary oj Authors. 



Horse-Breeding Recollections. By Count George Lehn- 

dorff. 8vo. Cloth, $1.00. 

" Every one interested in horses ought to own a copy of this valuable vade 
mecuni." — Maryland Farmer. 

'• Count LehndorfF's book is not only intelligent, but intelligible." — Chicago 
Herald. 

" A richly illustrated and finely prepared work, with elaborate tables and statis- 
tics on breeding race-horses. It is issued in elegant form, and is recognized as 
authority by horsemen." — Ohio State Journal. 

"Count Lehndorff, the manager of the Government stud of Germany, has made 
a special study of the intricacies of horse-brepding The recital of his experiences 
and the suggestions which he furnishes will undoubtedly prove of value to all who 
are interested in equine matters. The book is illustrated by engravings of some of 
the most celebrated favorites of the race-course." — Public Record, Philadelphia. 

A Short History of the American Trotting and Pacing Horse. 
With Tables of Pedigrees of Famous Horses, Useful Hints, Sugges- 
tions and Opinions on Training and Conditioning, compiled from 
various sources, Eules for Track Laying, etc., by Henry T. Coates ; 
What to Do before the Veterinary Surgeon Comes, by George Flem- 
ing, F. P. C.V. S. The book, besides treating of Driving Horses, gives a 
condensed history of the best horses in this country, with mention 
of their best performances. It is invaluable in its suggestions to 
horse trainers, and is the latest book on this subject published. Illus- 
trated with six pictures from photographs from life. 12mo. Cloth, 
75 cents. 



II 27 88 




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HECKMAN 

BINDERY INC. 

AUG 88 



N. MANCHESTER, 
INDIANA 46962 








